My Favorite Accident
by xPaleBlueEyesx
Summary: Life is a complicated mess. One decision can change everything, as Bella soon finds out. Join her in getting to know Alice Cullen's new foster brother, in falling in love, and the long, hard journey it takes her on. Will she get her happy ending?
1. Prologue

**A/N: Warning you now this is not your typical 'Bella's pregnant, and her and Edward get married and live happily ever after story.' This is a story that will focus on the individual before the couple. Yes, Bella is pregnant, but that's incredibly important for the story and will later be VERY important for Edward's growth as an individual. If your looking for everything's perfect, the end, this is not it. Of course, I do like a happy ending, but getting to that happy ending isn't going to be sunshine and roses.**

**Disclaimer: I Don't own Twilight, or anything related.**

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Accidents have always been a part of my life. From falling down in the local mall and twisting my ankle, to climbing a tree in the park, and breaking my wrist when I fell out. They were something that I would never be able to avoid, however they were also something I never completely enjoyed. That was until I sat in the hospital bed, looking down at my two favorite accidents. They were gorgeous, perfect and sweet, and even though I had only known them for a few minutes, my life would not be complete without them.

I suddenly found myself thankful for this accident, thankful that I had overlooked one detail of the night me and Edward were together. The one thing I forgot, was probably the most important detail, I forgot that we should have used a condom. But, I let it slip, for once I let something slip from my mind and here I was, sitting in the hospital bed after one hell of a journey, holding the result of my thoughtlessness in my arms, and thanking God for my accident. My favorite accident.


	2. Alice

**Oh and Disclaimer, sad story, I don't own Twilight. I am merely borrowing the characters and playing around with them a bit.**

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My mother drove me to the airport, it was eighty degrees in phoenix, and I had the window rolled down, enjoying the last bit of sun and heat I would have for a while. I was going to live with my father in the land of no sun. A small town called Forks, where everyone knew everyone's business, and where the sun came out from behind the clouds only once in a blue moon. Actually, a blue moon was probably more common than a sunny day in Forks now that I thought about it.

Oh, well, it didn't matter. What mattered was Renee being happy, and going on the road with Phil is what would make her happy. She insisted that she wanted me to stay, and though I knew some part of her really did want nothing more than for me to stay there and Phil to go on the road without her, there was a bigger part of her that wanted to be with the man she loved. That was why I had exiled myself to the small Rainey town. Charlie would be meeting me at the Port Angeles air port in four hours, the town of Forks not being big enough to warrant an airport of their own. Actually, the town probably isn't big enough to warrant a mall or a nice restaurant either.

"Bella, are you sure you want to go? We can turn around right now, I'm sure Charlie will understand." Renee seemed to want to make sure I knew that I had the option of staying there with her, and while a small part of me wanted to scream

'Yes, call him, cancel the ticket tell him never mind' a bigger part of me, the self sacrificing part of me that loved my mother and wanted her to be happy told me to go through with my plans.

"Mom, I want to go live with dad." they liked it if I referred to them as mom and dad and not Renee and Charlie "I'll be fifteen in two months and I've never really spent any time with him."

Well, I had spent time with him but not much. Just two weeks out of the summer, and the occasional holiday. Generally I was with my mother for Christmas and Thanksgiving but sometimes Charlie would talk her into me coming up there for Easter. That was until I turned twelve and insisted that we spend our time together on a vacation somewhere. Charlie of course had agreed, being eager to have time with me. And I got to see my dad without all the rain. Now though, I was subjecting myself to the constant cover of clouds and rain; on a daily basis for the next three or four years of my life. It was not going to be fun. Oh well.

"I promise I'll call as soon as I am at Ch- dad's house." With that promise and a kiss from my erratic mother I was off to board the plane.

I hoped Phil would be able to keep an eye on her, remind her to pay the bills, to go to doctor's appointments, lock the doors, things like that. It wasn't that she wasn't responsible, she was a very good mother, but she was very forgetful a lot of the time. By the age of eight I was reminding her to pay the phone bill because we were getting late notices. At the age of twelve I was making ad canceling doctor's appointments and cooking dinner for us.

When Phil came along, he seemed to be very responsible and Renee loved him, so I let him take over some things. He would handle the bills, while I would handle the doctors, school, and dinner. We had worked well together, a nice team. But they needed some alone time together, they were newlyweds and they needed time without me. Phil would be able to take care of everything; he would be able to keep her in check with things. That was what I told myself the whole way to Port Angeles, with my thoughts to keep me company, and my iPod turned on, the flight seemed to take no time at all. After what seemed like only being in the air for ten minutes the flight attendant was instructing everyone to fasten their seat belts for the landing. With a sigh, I took the headphones from my ear, wrapped them around the iPod and tucked it into my pocket as I pulled the seat belt tightly around me. Soon I could feel the jolt of the plane as the wheels touched ground. This was it, I would be in the car with Charlie for an hour, an hour of uncomfortable silence between us, and hour of trying to come up with something to talk about.

The car ride wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, sure it was uncomfortable, but not to bad. I gave Charlie a smile as I got out of the police cruiser and headed for the trunk to retrieve my bags. Riding to school in this tomorrow was going to suck, I was already going to be the focus of everyone there, and now I was going to have to add being driven in a police cruiser to the school. That won't draw attention to you at all Bella. I thought to myself with a laugh before I headed into the house behind Charlie. It was as I had remembered it. There were pictures of my mom and dad together, pictures of me from various school functions, one from a Christmas when I was four, a few of us on vacation together at the beach. Along with my school pictures and some of me and my mom and dad when I was a baby; before she had walked out on him.

The house was like some sort of a strange monument to the family we had been for a while. Did my dad still love my mom? It seemed odd to think that he could still care for her in that way after she had left him so long ago. Fourteen years ago. But there they were. Pictures of her and him; pictures of us. It was as if this house never changed. I gritted my teeth for a moment, trying to push the thoughts of my dad sitting here all alone for years without the family he longed for, from my mind. It was bad enough that I was going to miss my mom desperately, to force him to see that I was now sad for another reason was too much for him to see. So, I did what I always do. I sucked it up and gave him the best fake smile I could muster up before going up the stairs to find my room.

It was the same as I had left it. Aside from a new desk with a study lamp and a computer. One of Renee's stipulations was that he makes sure I have a computer. It wasn't the nicest, newest thing in the world. But it would work. It was better than nothing after all.

Once I had unpacked the contents of my duffel –I didn't have very many outfits that would work with the cold weather of Forks; I'd need to remember to go shopping soon to pick up a few long sleeve shirts and so forth. Even if the thought of a crowded mall was an absolute nightmare to me.- I went downstairs to see what Charlie had in the refrigerator for dinner. Ugh, of course, nothing was there but a thing of milk and what looked like an old package of bacon.

"Ch-Dad, I'm going to go to the store, I guess I'll walk since it's not raining." I called as I grabbed a rain coat from the hall closet. Even if it was currently not raining, chances were that wouldn't last, and knowing my luck I would be the girl who ended up stuck in a downpour while walking home with groceries.

"Okay, are you sure?" He seemed like he didn't want me to leave. "I could take us to the diner for dinner tonight, you don't need to cook or anything."

"No, it's fine I need to pick things up for breakfast for me tomorrow." He looked kind of dejected by that. Did he want us to spend time together? "I could use a ride to the store tomorrow, maybe some help doing an actual grocery shop…" I offered with a smile. It seemed to perk him up, he gave me a smile and said "Yes." Well, that was easy. Maybe he wanted to see me more than I thought he did? Could it be possible that he wanted me there more than I originally thought? That he cared for me more than I thought he did?

Creasing my eyebrows I opted not to think about it and headed on out. It was about a mile and a half and it took me about ten minutes to get there, I only tripped once on the way, which was a small miracle in its own. I was most defiantly a very, very accident prone person. It was as if they stalked me or something. Accidents stalking me, the thought made me smile as I opened the door to the store and headed in. It wasn't anything nearly as big as the ones back home. The aisles were much shorter and there were a lot less, not as large a selection either, but it would do. Noticing the cereal I walked over towards the aisle and.

Crash

I could hear the sound of the cereal boxes hitting the floor as I landed beside them. Of course I fell and knocked them over the boxes on my first day here. Great first impression to make, Bella.

"Are you okay?" The voice sounded like a bell as I looked up to see a Pixie like girl smiling down at me, her dark hair spiking out on the ends as she reached her hand out to help me. Immediately I took it and gave her a smile back, she seemed nice enough.

"Yeah I'm fine." I assured her as I adjusted the shirt that had ridden up my stomach a little bit. "I'm Bella, Bella Swan."

"I'm Alice Brand-Cullen." She cut off the last time she was beginning to say and changed it at the last minute with an almost embarrassed laugh. I couldn't help but smile at that and laugh a little was well. "Sorry, my last name is Cullen now. The Cullen's just adopted me a few months back so it was changed from Brandon." She explained the slip up as her eyes darted down to the mess of cereal boxes all over the floor.

"I'm kind of, a klutz." I muttered softly as she laughed again.

"Here, I'll help you pick them up." Wow, she was actually really nice. Maybe not everyone in this little town is so bad. As she stood up with two or three of the boxes, I couldn't tell the exact number the way she had them, she smiled at me. "Your Chief Swan's daughter, aren't you?"

"Yeah, I just got here today; he didn't have anything in the house edible."

"Single men for you; don't have a clue how to care for themselves." She chuckled as she said this to me, causing me to smile more. "Is he here?"

"No, I walked." I confessed looking at the mess on the floor, whoever worked here was going to hate having to clean everything up.

"You walked?!" She seemed a bit shocked. I used to walk everywhere back home.

"Yeah, it's not that far away."

"Yeah but it will probably start raining any minute. One of the downfalls of living in Forks." She was defiantly a perky person, normally I wasn't a fan of perky happy people, they annoyed me, but she didn't. She seemed incredibly nice on top of her peppiness. "My older sister gets off in a half hour, she can drop you at home if you want to wait." Definitely liking her more and more every minute, I decided as a smiled at her and nodded yes.

"I don't want to be a bother though, I mean I can walk. It's not that far."

"You won't be." She beamed and turned and yelled "Rose!"

I turned to see who she was yelling for, there was a small boy with freckles, a large burly man that looked as if he were trying to decide weather it was to bad for his cholesterol to get the 24 pack of beer or the 12 pack, I thought to myself with a small chuckle before my eyes came upon the person that was walking towards us. She was the most gorgeous person I had ever seen, tall, blond, leggy, boobs perfect, skin was light and flawless…her eyes were the most gorgeous shade of Blue…She looked as if she had just walked off of a runway or something.

"Rose, this is Bella, she's Chief Swan's daughter, can you drop her off at home on your way?" She asked the gorgeous girl with a wide smile.

"Yeah, sure." She said as she noticed the mess that I had made with the cereal.

"I'm sorry about that…" I muttered only to notice an eye roll and an impatient groan as she got to work on picking up the mess.

"All in the job description." She muttered with a half smile as she waved me off. She was polite, but I got the distinct impression that she didn't really like me that much.

"Don't worry about her." Alice whispered as she took my elbow, leading me off with a box of cereal in her hand. "She's not exactly a fan of most people, but she's a really great person once you get to know her." She explained as I looked down, by shoulders hunched just a bit, I was to shy for my own good, and I hated it. "Here, I grabbed a thing of cinnamon toast crunch off of the floor…if you want something else though you can go get it…I figured most people liked Cinnamon-"

"No, I love it, it's fine." I assured her with a sincere smile, interrupting her slightly nervous babbling.

After checking out Alice and I headed for her sister's car to wait for her to finish her shift. Once inside Alice turned the battery on, as not to waist any of the gas, and put a CD in the CD player. It was a popular tune from an artist I recognized, the beat was pretty decent I decided as I bopped my head to the music a little bit, completely off beat, but oh well. I was with a friend.

"How long have you lived with the Cullen's…If it's not to nosey of a question." I asked it a few moments after the song I was enjoying ended, and immediately realized how forward I had been. She didn't seem to mind though, as she turned the music down to a low hum in the background.

"It's fine…I've been with Carlisle and Esme for about seven years." She began, speaking their names with some kind of reverence. She obviously cared for them very much. "My mom and dad were killed in a car accident along with my little sister."

At hearing that, my heart went out to her. I'd never had to deal with death much before. Aside from my grandma, and I knew how hard that had been for me. Losing your whole family had to be much worse. She was still talking though so I opted not to interrupt with a muttered. 'I'm sorry.' I longed to tell her how sorry I was for her loss, but I knew when I heard it from people after my grams had died, I just wanted to scream at them that I got they were sorry, and to please stop saying it. I hadn't of course, I was never able to really scream at someone, and I felt terrible if I hurt people's feelings.

"I was thrown into a few foster homes, here and there, but nothing permanent. I didn't have any other family, and my parent's didn't have a plan for what would happen if something happened to them, so I ended up in the system. But after about a year or so Carlisle and Esme took me in, the can't have children of their own, and immediately considered me theirs. I lived with them for years before they began the official adoption proceedings…" Her eyes had a few tears in them and my heart went out to her.

"Wow…That…sucks. But at least you found The Cullen's; they sound like really kind people." I said, hoping I hadn't offended her, I wasn't really sure what to say. What do you say to someone you don't know that has just told you their whole life story?

"They are, their incredible I'm really lucky…" She paused for a moment and then gave me a smile. "I can't believe I just dumped all of that on you, I normally don't talk to people about that."

I looked up at her through my eyelashes as I bit down a little on my bottom lip. "It's okay." I managed to get out as my hands played nervously with the hem of my sweater.

"So, are you starting school tomorrow?" She seemed to perk up as she changed the subject.

"Yeah, I get to ride in the police cruiser." I said, snickering at the horribleness that tomorrow was going to be. Oh well, at least I knew someone now.

"I can have Rose pick you up on the way if you want." She offered, but I wasn't really sure if that was a good idea, it already seemed I was pushing my luck by waiting for a ride home from the girl.

"I don't want to be a burden for her…"

"Oh, you won't be, she has to go near your house anyways to pick up her boyfriend. You can ride in the back with me, I'll have someone to talk to while they make goo goo eyes at each other."

"If you're sure she won't mind…"

"I am, good. Now it's settled. Oh, and don't worry you won't be the new kid for long." At that I raised an eyebrow, wondering what she meant. She obviously got my confusion because she explained. "I'm getting a new foster brother next week. He's in a group home right now, but Carlisle and Esme want to take him in. They just have to get some hurdle with the courts worked out and there was a hold on his case or he would have been here yesterday. His name's Edward." She finished with a smile.

That didn't sound to great though, a teenager around our age in foster care? He was probably some gangster wannabe that got caught with drugs and kicked out of his last foster home or something. That was what all the foster kids were like back home. Way to go Bella, pass judgments on the new kid before even meeting him. The voice in the back of my head that sounded a lot like my mother, and my father combined chastised me. I shouldn't pass judgment on him like that. I should wait and meet him, after all I was the new kid at the moment and I was sure to be walking into a school full of already formed opinions of me. I wouldn't want to do that to someone else.

"I can't wait to meet him." I finally added, as Alice turned to another song.


	3. Forks High School

**Disclaimer: Nope, still not mine. If that changes though then I'll let everyone know... doubt it will.**

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The night went by pretty fast. After Rosalie -- as I'd learned her full name was -- dropped me off at home I fixed Charlie a bacon sandwich since I'd totally forgotten to get anything else at the store besides cereal, after my little run in with the boxes and meeting Alice. He didn't seem to mind though and offered to give me a ride to the store tomorrow after school, of course I accepted since the house was in great need of food, and that had pretty much been our dinner conversation, after I ate I went upstairs, brushed my teeth and lay down in the unfamiliar bed. Not the most comfortable thing in the world, but it was also not the most uncomfortable thing either.

As I lay there I found my mind drifting to what Alice had told me tonight about herself, how she had lost her family I one tragic accident? Would I ever be able to be that strong as to go on and see the good that the world had to offer? It seemed childish for me to even complain to myself about little things such as the bed not being as comfortable as the one that I had back home, a lot of things were seeming childish of me now.

My mom had always told me I was born thirty years old and that I got more middle aged each day, but to be lying in my safe warm bed, the bed that my father had provided with him safe, and asleep down the hall from me and my mom safe and happy in a Hotel room with the love of her life I found all of the thoughts of things that sucked in my life to be trivial.

Alice had lived through worse, and though she never said anything about Rose I couldn't help but assume she'd probably gone through worse as well. Probably wouldn't find that out though, after all the girl had seemed to really not like me the car ride back. She was polite enough but she never made the direct effort to speak to me. If I asked her a question she gave the quickest and politest response before going back to flipping through the radio station. Alice had told me that it wasn't any big deal and the only person Rosalie was nice to was her boyfriend, and her family of course. But that if I gave her a shot and got to know her she would end up being a really good friend.

Somehow I couldn't bring myself to buy it though, she seemed to really not like me and the shortness was giving me the impression that I was boring her with my stupid little questions about how she liked Forks, and how long she had been here. Jeez, way to go Bella, I thought to myself before I rolled over onto my other side, pulling the blankets further over my body, the room was fairly chilly, but it was a winter night in Forks. I suppose I would get used to the cold, or deal as best I could. As much as I hated the cold and hated to even think about it; that was the last thought on my mind before I fell asleep and into a dream about snow.

The Ice was melting and slushy as more white powdery flakes fell form the sky, Alice was in it and threw a snowball at me catching me off guard and causing me to trip and lose my balance. Surprisingly though, my body never made contact with the wet ground, instead I felt myself wrapped in a pair of strong and warm arms as the most gorgeous green eyes looked at me silently asking if I was okay. I moved my eyes from his emerald green orbs to look at the rest of his face only to see nothing, instead there was a loud ringing sound. With a little effort I craned my head and heard the shrill ring again, it was closer and getting louder as I felt myself coming out of the oblivion that was my amazing dream.

The only thing I knew for certain about my dream was that I had never seen the person before, I'd never seen eyes like that on anyone, they haunted me as I laid there willing myself to go back to sleep for a few more minutes. Whoever was on the phone could wait. Oh how wrong I was, the second it stopped ringing it began again, this was useless I decided as I wrenched my eyes open and grabbed the cordless putting it up to my ear. "Hello?" Came the sound of my groggy voice.

"Bella?! It's Alice, oh my goodness I am so excited for your first day, my dad agreed to drop me off on his way to work, I wanted to help get you ready for school! I'm outside, but the doors locked, come let me in." I heard the high pitched tone of Alice's voice as I cursed mornings. Looking to the clock I noticed that it was only six AM...why was I up at six am? I didn't have to be ready until seven forty five, which meant I could lie in bed and sleep until at least seven. Seven fifteen if I really wanted to be lazy. "Bella, we've only got like an hour and a half, that's not nearly enough time. Get your sleepy butt in gear," She shrieked into the phone as I rolled my eyes and stood up. "You want to look good for your first day don't you?!" Her voice was so hopeful that I couldn't help but smile a bit. At least I knew someone on my first day.

"I'm at the door." Was all I said to her as I hit the end button and pulled the wood door open, revealing a very small, very gorgeous pixie like ball of energy. She was bouncing back and forth, from her heels to her toes, then back again, I noted the pattern as she walked into the house the smile never leaving her face. "I take it your a morning person?" I questioned as my hands skimmed over the cabinet before I felt the cool medal handle and pulled the door open that revealed the cereal, there wasn't any milk though. In my haste to get out of the store last night I'd completely forgotten about all of the things we needed in the house. I'd have to remember to pick some up.

"We don't have any milk but we've got cereal you want some?" I offered Alice as I poured some into a bowel and began to munch on the crunchy pieces without even bothering to get a spoon. My lack of table manners didn't seem to offend Alice any though as she just nodded her head no and set down at the table, emptying out what looked like a large bag of torture devices. There was something long and silver, followed by tubes and tubes of gunk, another silver thing that curved at the end, something could only imagine would be painful to use.

"We've got a lot of work to do Bella, so hurry up. I want to get your eyebrows plucked before you go up to get dressed. After you've done that we can start on the hair." She sounded so diplomatic, as she looked at the torturous interments in front of her, my heart pounding as I realized they were meant for me. "...I mean come on, who does their makeup before their hair?!" She finished what she was saying, I realized I'd not been paying attention but she looked to be horrified by the thought of one applying makeup before they did their hair. I on the other hand was horrified at all of it but I knew I wasn't going to get out of this one so I just nodded politely at her, stuck my cereal bowel in the sink and headed up the stairs.

Once safely in the bathroom I rolled my eyes and groaned about the upcoming tortures before brushing my teeth, applying deodorant and changing into a pair of worn out skinny jeans and an old Beatles t-shirt I'd stolen from my mom's closet because of how comfortable it was. After giving myself a once over in the mirror I decided that this was as good as it was going to get and headed down to meet Alice at the kitchen table where she had the tweezers in hand.

"I was going to pluck before you changed give the redness time to go down before--" I heard her trail off as I walked into the room, her eyes growing as wide as saucers. What was the matter? Did I have something in my teeth, I was sure I had brushed them really well. "Your wearing that on your first day of school?!" She asked, sounding horrified as I gave her a 'yeah, why?' kind of look, willing her to read my mind.

An hour later, a raid through my closet only to discover I owned nothing, and some hair pulling later I was done. The makeup she had done was very light and you couldn't really tell there was any on my face per my request that she begrudgingly listened too. My close had been perked up some,she'd found a red long sleeve undershirt that went with the red lettering on the cream colored shirt I wore and insisted I put it on under to 'liven up the vintage look' a little. "Ah, Bella you look perfect!" She squealed as I grabbed my rain coat and smiled at her before following her out to the front porch. Rose and her boyfriend Felix James were due there any minute and Alice had mentioned how Rose hated to wait.

The ride to school wasn't so bad, but Rose and Felix couldn't seen to keep their hands off of each other and it made me wonder something. Were they having sex? It was something I'd never done myself, but I knew a lot of kids our age... did. It just seemed so weird a concept for me though, I wasn't naive, I knew people in my high school back home were having sex but I never really... knew about it. I just knew it went on, I didn't know anyone personally that was... active, but here we were in the back of Rose's car watching her boyfriend practically feel her up and she didn't seem to mind at all.

Alice didn't seem to phased by it either as we stepped out of the back seat only to leave Rosalie and Felix in a very heated make out session in the front. "I don't think I've ever seen two people so..."

"Disgusting?" Alice finished for me with a laugh as we headed into the school.

"No, just... touchy feely I guess? Is everyone like that here?" I wondered as we passed a couple holding hands, nothing I hadn't seen back in Phoenix, however the heavy make out sessions and so forth were reserved for the stair wells and bathroom's. We'd had a very strict PDA policy back at the school, people were barely allowed to hold hands. Not that that had affected me any, I was fifteen years old and had yet to have a boyfriend. It wasn't that I was apposed to the idea of dating really, just that I hadn't really met anyone that interested me.

"Alice! Who's the new girl?" I heard someone ask as they jogged towards us. When I turned to see who it was, I was met with a baby faced guy who had the biggest smile on his face. His hair was blond and spiked a little in the front, adding to the look he was trying to pull off. Although why anyone would try and pull off the California surfer boy look in Forks was beyond me. "She's cute." I heard him say again as me cheeks immediately flamed up and I looked down at the ground allowing my hair to fall in my face.

"She's not interested Mike." Alice said with a laugh as she lead me off to the main office where I was to get my schedule.

"What was that about?" I finally asked, as I felt the blush on my cheeks dying down.

"That was Mike, he's... well, the only way to describe him is he's Mike. Very, cocky, yet somehow he can be sweet sometimes as well. Although those times are very rare." She said with a high pitched tinkling laugh as I shoved the door open and walked inside.

"I'm Isabella Swan." I said when I reached the front desk, earning myself a smile from the woman behind the counter.

"Chief Swan's daughter, he's been looking forward to you moving back here since you told him you were coming." The woman said in a sweet voice as she handed me two sheets of paper. "Here's a map of the school, and this," She motioned to the other paper. "Is a your schedule." With that she looked over to Alice. "Miss Cullen, will you show Isabella to her classes?"

"Already on it, Mrs. Cope. Come on Bella." And with that Alice lead me out of the office and down the hallway where she grabbed my schedule before giving me a very large smile. "We have almost all the same classes!" She squealed out. "The only class we don't have together is sixth period English, but you'll be fine." She told me as she began motioning me towards a classroom, which I assumed was our first class.

The rest of the day went by pretty much like that, Alice and I sat together at lunch, Mike and a couple of his friends came up to me during gym class and asked if I needed anyone to show me around, but Alice quickly saved me once again. I didn't know why they seemed to interested in me, I'd never been the source of interest for anyone before, especially not guys. I always went unnoticed, after all, I was relatively plain. Long brown hair, brown eyes, pale skin, average sized body, only 5'4... I wasn't anything special to look at, and I knew it, I wasn't ugly, but I wasn't a supermodel like Rose either, so I assumed the reason I seemed to be getting so much attention was because of the fact that I was the new girl. A school this size probably didn't get very many new students, I'd be willing to bet one every couple of years was about all it averaged, so I was the new and exciting thing.

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My first week at Forks High School went by relatively uneventfully. Alice had made it a routine to be at my house every morning in order to dress me, and was threatening a shopping trip for tomorrow. _Why on earth would anyone want to spend their Saturday shopping?! _I wondered to myself with a groan as Rose pulled into the driveway of my house, "Thanks for the ride Rose," I began, as I got out of the car, careful not to trip on the slushy ice that was covering every square inch of land. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Of course, as usual, I got Rose's polite but impersonal "Okay." before I turned to go inside.

"I'll call you when I get home Bella, we have to strategies for tomorrow!" Alice squealed at me as I headed for the door, raising my hand over my shoulder and waving her off, to gesture that I had heard her.

How was it possible for someone so small to have so much energy? I wondered as I walked into the house and began removing my coat and boots before going into the kitchen to see what I should fix Charlie and I for dinner. He needed to start eating healthier, so I figured baked chicken, Green Beans and potato's, as a treat for Charlie, would be dinner. It was certainly better than the fired greasy crap he was getting from the diner every night before I got here. Well, besides the night he took breaks and ordered in Pizza.

I laid the chicken out on the pan and sprinkled some slat and pepper on it before placing it in the oven, we had some tiny red potato's that I knew Charlie was a fan of so I put them in some boiling water and opened the can of green beans, adding them to a pot on the stove as well. I added butter, salt and pepper to both the potato's and the green beans and then went to wash my hands, as they felt pretty disgusting from the raw chicken I'd handled earlier.

As soon as I had put the towel down I used to dry them I heard my cell phone begin to go off. _Right on time._ I thought as I walked over to it and picked it up with a smile. "Hey Alice." I answered only to be greeted with a shriek from her, a very, very excited shriek at that. "What's going on?!"

_"OhMYGODBELLA,"_ she began in one long breath as I pulled the phone away from my ear._ "Edward's here! I can't wait for you to meet him, he wasn't supposed to be here for a few more days, but the judge let mom and dad take him early!"_ She shrieked once again as I laughed, at least she had a good reason to be so excited this time, she'd called me last night with the same shrieks and 'OHMYGOD' to tell me that she'd gotten her newest issue of Cosmo in the mail and it had make up tips she wanted to try on me.

"That's great!"  
_  
"Mom and dad want you to come over for dinner tomorrow, promise me you will."_

"I ah, Ali, I dunno about that, wouldn't it be intruding?" I asked, suddenly feeling very uneasy about going over to the Cullen home to meet the newest addition to their family. I wasn't family, if they were doing a family dinner then shouldn't it be just family? And why would Alice want me there? She'd only known me for a week.

_"Don't be ridiculous! Your coming tomorrow and we'll get the perfect outfit for you to where too!"_ And with that she hung the phone up, leaving me standing there with one thought in my head: _Did that just happen?_ the girl could be so... energetic and demanding sometimes, but I had to admit, I loved her anyways. In fact she was one of the first friends I'd ever really had, there was one girl back home that I knew a little bit, she was Renee's friends' daughter and her name was Nicole but there had never been anything like sleepovers or any of the other stuff girls usually did with their friends, not that I would have had the time anyways.

Renee was my best friend in Phoenix, often times we would veg out on the couch on Friday nights and watch a movie, or order out. And on the evenings that she wasn't up to movies or, she was busy with Phil or something I was perfectly content to sit alone in my room and read, the entire room was filled with books, all of which I'd brought with me.... and forgotten to unpack, I realized with a sigh as I continued on with dinner. I was really going to need to finish unpacking; there was just so little space in the room for all of my books. Maybe I could talk Charlie into letting me bring the old bookshelf down from the attic and put it in the living room. If we moved a few things around there'd be room, my room wasn't big enough for the book shelf, but the living room could be with a few minor adjustments.

While the food was cooking I decided to go take a look at the situation in the living room to see if a book shelf really would fit. If my dad was willing to move his entertainment center and maybe caddy corner it then the bookshelf could go right in beside it.

The sound of the door opening alerted me that Charlie was home before I heard him call out for me. Why he called out for me I didn't know. Who else would be here?

"Something smells good, whatcha' fixin'?" He asked me as he pulled his hat off to hang on the wall.

"Baked chicken, Green beans and those red potato's you like."

"Perfect. I'm gonna go wash up." And with that he was up the stairs, he really wasn't much on conversations. A few minutes later I decided that if I was going to ask about the book shelf I may as well do it now, so I headed up the stairs and knocked on his bedroom door.

"Dad?"

"yeah?" he asked as he pulled the door open, his uniform now replaced by a pair of sweats and a white t-shirt.

"I was wondering if we could bring the old bookshelf down from the attic after dinner?" I began kind of fast, as I followed him down the stairs. "It's just collecting dust up there, and if you move some stuff in the living room around a bit then it'll fit just fine," asking Charlie for things was very nerve racking, I didn't know him very well. Sure, he was my dad, but I'd lived with my mom all my life, I only saw the man two weeks out of the year. "I really need somewhere to put my books." I finished as we made it back into the kitchen where I heard the oven timer begin to beep.

Charlie sat down at the table while I pulled the chicken out. "I don't see why not," he began while pulling two paper towels off the roll, folding them and placing them on the duck print place settings that had been here since I was at least four, probably since Charlie and my mom had been married, actually. "I have some old furniture polish; we can clean it up real good after dinner and bring it into the living room."

Wow that was easy, I thought as I brought two plates filled with food over to the table. "I don't know how I didn't starve without you Bells." He said, causing me to blush as I sat down and took a bite of the food. Maybe living here wasn't all bad.


	4. Edward

DISCLAIMER: Not mine, never have been, never will be.

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"Alice!" Rose screamed as we were lead into yet another store by the very over zealous shopper. We'd been at the mall in Port Angeles for at least four hours now and I could tell that Rose was just as ready to leave as I was. Unfortunately Alice wouldn't hear of it. An hour ago she had promised that we could leave in ten minutes.

"I just want everyone to look good for Edward's welcome dinner tonight!" She yelled from the men's clothing wrack. Apparently getting me some new clothes wasn't enough for her, she was buying a new outfit for everyone tonight. Rose had complained a bit as Alice forced her into a dress she wasn't to keen on earlier, but knew better than to complain too much. After about twenty minutes of arguing with her over letting me buy my own clothes I finally had to relent and allow her to buy my outfit for this evening. I wasn't happy about it though. "Oh, Rose, get over here," Alice said as she held out a light blue plaid button down shirt for Rosalie to examine. "This would go great with his hair, dark blue's are definitely his color." She said as Rose just nodded her head in exhaustion.

After another twenty minutes and a new tie for Carlisle later, we were headed out of the mall and to the car. This was going to be one long evening, I realized as I got in the back seat, my feet killing me. "Hey Bella." Alice asked after we'd finally gotten on the interstate.

"Yeah?"

"My mom said it would be fine if you spent the night tonight, how about it?" Was she serious? of course she was, there was one thing I'd learned about Alice in the past week that I'd known her, she was very serious about most things she suggested. Even when they seemed completely off the wall, like when she suggested we take a ferry ride and spend the weekend up in Vancouver Canada. Esme had put a stop to that one, conceding that she would take us there one day over the summer if we wanted, but we weren't going to go alone.

Another thing I had learned: When Alice's idea isn't completely out there, she usually gets her way. "Okay," I agreed, and suddenly felt very nervous. I'd never spent the night with a friend before, maybe it would be fun, I told myself as I leaned my head against the seat and listened to the music Rosalie had begun playing. Alice prattled aimlessly in the front seat about all of her purchases. I was beginning to love the little ball of energy, but if I heard one more thing about shopping I was going to scream, so I tuned her out.

Green tree's whizzed by as we pulled into the long driveway of the Cullen home. How they could tell where the turn off was, I wasn't sure because of the lush greenery that seemed to surround it. That was one of the things I still wasn't used to about this place. There was moss all over everything, the trees, the rocks, the ground even. Back home everything was brown and dry and warm. Here it was cold, and green and wet. Always wet, I mused as Rose put the car into park allowing Alice and I to get out.

Before I could even register what was happening, I felt my hand being grabbed as I was lead away from the car, the door still open. "Come on, you have to meet Edward." She insisted as she drug me into the house. The very large house, I realized as I felt my eyes go wide. The place was insane, I knew her dad was well off, he after all was a doctor, but this place... I had never seen anything so big before. And open, an entire wall was all windows, I noted as I began looking around me. The carpet was a perfect shade of cream and I felt bad for wearing my ratty chucks on the floor, but Alice hadn't given me a chance to stop and take them off at the door.

"Edward!"

She bellowed as she pulled me up the stairs, I could faintly hear the sound of Esme welcoming Rose home as I was drug down the hallway to a shut door where Alice finally stopped, allowing me to catch my breath before she began knocking on the door. "Edward, come on out I want you to meet by best friend, Bella." Her voice trilled happily as I felt a weird sense of... happiness, I guess was the word, at her calling me her best friend.

As the door began to open I stepped back, a smile on my face from hearing Alice call me her best friend. "This is Edward." I heard Alice say as I walked towards him, my hand outstretched to introduce myself.

"Hi, I'm B--" As I met his gaze my words cut off, because I was met with the most intense and interesting shade of Green eyes. A pair of eyes I had seen once before; in my dream earlier this week.

For a split second I literally couldn't move as I stared into his eyes, they were so beautiful, I'd never seen eyes like this before, the kind that I could stare into and get lost. It was as if his eyes contained a thousand secrets and thoughts and -- _"Ah hum," _the sound of Alice clearing her throat slowly pulled me from my trance. I could feel the blush rising on my cheeks and immediately looked down at his hand. Thankfully, I'd left my hair down today so it fell in my face creating somewhat of a shield for me, hopefully he didn't notice the staring.

"I'm Bella," I managed to get out, my voice a little higher than usual, but still nothing too embarrassing. "It's nice to meet you." And with that I reached out to shake his extended hand, as soon as my skin touched his I felt a pleasant jolt of electricity and immediately let go, looking up to meet his gaze once more. The blush was still on my cheeks but I didn't care at that point. Had he felt the shock that was there too? Or was that just me? Was it from the static electricity of the carpet? It could have been, but didn't that usually happen when you were wearing socks on the carpet not shoes with a rubber bottom?

Before I had the chance to speak to him and appologize for my odd behavior I felt Alice dragging me down the hallway. "We'll see you at dinner Edward!" Her pixie like voice called over her shoulder. Still, Edward remained silent though.

"He doesn't talk much," I noted softly as Alice pulled me into what I could only assume was her room and shut the door.

"No, he's pretty quiet only speaks when spoken to," She began as her hand reached for a hairbrush. "What was with you back there?" I knew the question was coming, yet I still didn't have an answer for it. My behavior was odd, but how was I supposed to explain it? i'Oh, I had a dream about someone with his eyes a week ago and that caught me off guard, and then when I went to shake his hand I felt some kind of weird electric shock.'/i no, that wasn't going to happen, the little pixie would have me in a straight jacket by the end of the evening if I confessed that to her. Although, the straight jacket would probably be very fashionable, I could just see her stopping the men with the little white coats and giving them a lecture on skin tones needing to match the season of the color, or some crap like that.

She'd tried to give me a lecture a couple days ago on skin tones, mumbling something about me being a winter with my pale skin but I never really gave her much more thought. The only thing I understood in the sentence was winter, and winter I definitely was not. Anything cold and wet was not welcome in my world, and winter was most definitely cold and wet. Then again, all of Forks was cold and wet, and I was stuck here for the next, oh, three years. Terrific. At least I would have Alice to pass the time, and Rosalie; if she ever came around.

"Bella?" She questioned again, still walking around the room, this time heading for her make up counter. _Oh no! _I knew what that meant, we were going to have yet another fun filled game of Bella Barbie doll. Terrific!

"Sorry."

Alice grabbed a few items that I didn't exactly recognize and carried them over to where I was sitting. "So what was with you?" She asked again as she opened up a tube of lipstick, grimaced and then put the lid back on before repeating that process with two more tubes. "You looked like you'd seen a ghost or something, did Edward offend you by not talking?"

"God, no... I just, his eyes, I've never seen eyes that shade of green before." Well, it was a half truth. I just didn't need to add in that I _had_ in fact seen eyes that shade of green before, those exact eyes actually, the shape and everything, in my dream earlier in the week.

That seemed to placate her as I noticed the thoughtful look cross her face. It was what she did when she was thinking, her eyebrows would scrunch together and her mouth would pull together to the left side in a pucker for a few moments. "That's not it, but your not going to tell me so I'm going to let it go," thank God! "For now." She finished and I felt a feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach.

Maybe she would just forget everything if I changed the subject? "What exactly are you planning to do with all of that?" I questioned, motioning to all the make up and hair products she'd managed to line up on the bed.

"I'm going to get you ready for dinner." She said, as if it were the most obvious answer in the entire world.

My face fell, as I closed my eyes for a moment. "That's what I was afraid of." I said softly before grabbing a couple of tubes of lipstick and opening them. If she was going to force me to wear all of this stuff, I was at least not going to wear anything that made me look too... well, just over the top. Alice seemed to like going for bright attention grabbing colors, and she wanted to put me in them. But attention wasn't something I desired, quite the opposite actually. I was far too clumsy to want to have attention on me.

After examining the different shaded I took three away and put them on the other side of me on the bed before returning the not too bright colors to her pile of products, most if which I didn't even know the name of. "Any of those lipsticks are fine, these," I motioned to the ones on the other side of me, "Are way too dark and bright... and well, I don't want to look like a hooker." I finally managed to spit out as I heard Alice huff a bit, but knew she would relent. At least she was getting to play Bella Barbie doll; a game which had quickly become her favorite I was willing to bet.

"Alice! Bella! Come get your clothes out of my car!"

We both heard Rose bellow from down the hall before her door slammed. "Come one, I need to see which outfit I'm fir sure putting you in tonight." Alice said as she headed for the door.

"What do you mean 'which outfit'?" I questioned, my brows furrowing as I followed her out the door towards the stairs. "You only bought me one outfit... didn't you?" She better have only bought me one outfit, I specifically told her if she had to buy me something then it was only going to be _one _thing. Emphasis on the word one.

"Uh, about that," She began as she pulled the front door open, the cool and damp air assaulting my face as we stepped outside. "I saw these two other really cute outfits that I just knew would be perfect on you while you were in the bathroom so I kind of bought them really quickly and forgot to mention it to you." God she could talk fast, I realized as I looked at her. She'd gotten all of that out in literally one breath, and I'd only caught every other word it seemed but I'd pieced together what she was telling me. She snuck and did something I asked her not too, did she ever take no for an answer? I wondered as we opened the car door and began grabbing the bags.

Surprisingly tiny Alice was able to carry all of her shopping bags, no small feat mind you, the girl had bought an outfit for every member of the family and almost bought something for a girl, Angela Webber, we'd eaten lunch with twice. I managed to talk her out of that one since Angela was quiet and neither I, nor Alice knew her that well other than she seemed nice enough at the lunch table.

Unfortunately I'd not been able to stop her from buying Mrs. Bane a new pair of pumps and a nice blouse. Apparently Alice had been itching to get that woman something that looked good on her for a year now and since she had her dad's credit card with her she was going to do just that. I could only imagine the look on the poor woman's face come Monday when Alice walked in with shopping bags and handed them to her. She'd told me she was going to have a small talk with her after class about her wardrobe decisions as well, I only hoped she didn't get suspended because of it. There was no stopping her though.

Dinner that night was kind of odd. I sat between Alice and Edward, Rosalie was next to Felix, her and Alice arguing across the table about something or other. I could make out that Alice wanted something and Rose wasn't thrilled but was going to give in anyways, I assumed Alice was blackmailing her or something about telling their parents about her and Felix's sex life. She'd mentioned how she often held the fact that she'd walked in on Rose and Felix 'in the act' over her sisters head when she wanted to get her way.

Then again I was only half paying attention to my best friend beside of my, because every inch of my body was aware that Edward was sitting next to me, although he was incredibly quiet. Actually, come to think of it I don't think I had heard him say a single word the entire evening, I found myself wondering if maybe I had offended him earlier by staring whenever I was introducing myself, maybe that had been why he wasn't speaking to me now. Of course the less self centred part of me registered the fact that he hadn't said a single word to anyone, not just me. "I love the roast, don't you?" I finally said, directing my question to Edward.

Instead of speaking though he just shook his head; I smiled at him, feeling a blush rise on my cheeks, though I wasn't sure why, and returned to dinner. The rest of the evening Alice spent pestering him about his old school and if he liked to shop. The fact that he hadn't spoken didn't seem to faze her any, she just kept right on telling him about the teachers he would have and how he could eat lunch with her and I on Monday. That of course seguaid into her telling him she would take him shopping soon, and that while shopping today she'd taken the liberty of buying him a few new outfits.

I don't know how I know this, but he was nervous. There was just some kind of a weird vibe I seemed to be getting from him that Alice was making him nervous with her over enthusiasm so I decided to step in. "Alice, do you have the new Britney Spears CD?" I questioned, wondering if Edward really was nervous or if I was just setting myself up for what was sure to be pure torture.

"Of course,"

"Great, I was thinking maybe I would give her a chance after all." I said, as I took another bite of the pot roast that Esme had prepared while Alice went off on this rant about Britney Spears getting a bad wrap. It earned me a small smile and a glance from Edward though, so I knew the upcoming Britney induced torture was not for nothing.

"... And I know the shaved head was bad, I'll admit what a terrible fashion faux pa that was, but--"

"Edward, pass the green beans." Rosalie said, breaking the long stream of Alice's rant on Britney. I smiled as I watched Edward hand her the green beans. "Not a problem, Rosalie" she seethed, her eyes transfixed on his as Esme quickly turned her attention to her eldest daughter. "Rosalie!" She said, her voice furious, as she prepared to lecture the blond only to be cut off by Rosalie standing up from the table. "No, he's been here almost two days now and he hasn't said a single word," She fired back at her mom. "He could at least acknowledge our existence, your hospitality!" She finished as she headed for the stairs, Alice running after her.

"Why are you such a bitch?!" I heard her shriek at her sister from halfway up the stairs as Esme called "Language!" up behind them before returning her attention to the dinner table.

I felt like I was intruding on some family thing at this point and was about to excuse myself from the table and call my dad to come and get me when Esme turned to look at me "I'm glad you decided to come to dinner Bella, it's really great to have you hear." She said as I felt a little more at ease. Edward was still sitting in the same position he'd been in when Rose began the little tirade, and I was going to ask him if he was okay, when he suddenly stood and left the table.

"Thank you for inviting me," I said, a nervous smile on my face as I watched Edward decend up the steps.

"Felix, you may want to head home now we're going to have a family meeting." I heard Carlisle say as he stood as if motioning for Felix to stand as well, and then walked him to the door.

"I'll call and have my dad come pick me up," I began when he returned. "Thanks for d--"

"Bella, you don't have to go." Carlisle stopped me with a smile as he sat back down. "I just needed an excuse to kick Felix out of the house without sounding too rude." He finished before taking another bite of his dinner. "Rose and Alice fight like that all the time, we don't have family meetings over them anymore. It'll pass soon," Esme explained, a smile on her face as well. "besides, Rose deserves what she's getting after the way she treated Edward." That I could agree with I thought.

"Uhm, I'm just going to go up and see if Alice is done chewing her out then." I said as I excused myself from the table, as nice as Esme and Carlisle were, I had just met them and I was a little nervous being left at the table with them all alone. I hoped I didn't come off as rude, after all I had just left when they were trying to make the situation less tense, but as I climbed the cream colored stair case I could feel the relief of not being put on the spot to talk any further with my best friends parents.

Pictures of Rosalie and Alice covered the wall leading up the staircase, I realized as I began looking around, taking in my surroundings. There were pictures of Alice in a ballet tutu, she couldn't have been older than nine in the picture as she smiled at the camera. Another was of Alice and Rose standing together in front of the ocean, the sun shining in the background as Rose stood, her arms around her younger sister, Alice, with her arms both around Rosalie's waist. The picture obviously hadn't been taken around here. That was evident by the bright sun shining in the background and the beautiful white sand beach they appeared to be standing on.

Once I got to the top of the stairs I looked to see more pictures lining the hallway, these were more recent and featured Alice and Rosalie together or separately, some of were Rosalie and Felix, and some of her standing proudly by an old mustang. There were a lot more pictures of Rose standing by old cars as well, and I soon realized she must love car shows, since all the cars in the pictures appeared to be classics. That new piece of information kind of caught me off guard; the tall blond who was always dressed incredibly nice did not strike me as the type to be into something so stereotypically make oriented as cars.

Then again, I never pegged Alice for being as strong and forceful as she was, but the girl was definitely both. The amount of shopping bags she carried through the mall with her amazed me, and how she'd managed to shove me into a dressing room while one handedly holding said shopping bags had been even more shocking. I guess the old saying really was true. You can't judge a book by it's cover. That's how I found myself thinking of Edward for the rest of the night. I'd been so quick to assume he'd be some white rapper boy, or a druggie, possibly both, when Alice first told me about him.

I knew it was wrong, and I chastised myself for it, but I still expected it. I was assuming that just because he was a teenage male who'd been back and forth between group and foster homes he would be bad news, arrogant, rude and a whole plethora of other stereotypes that I was not in the least bit proud of. Instead he was shy, and I got the sense that he was nervous, or scared maybe. It wasn't an anxious kind of nervous like he was waiting to get upstairs to sneak out either, it was another kind all together. He seemed almost timid. Like sitting at a table with his new foster family was somehow a big deal, a scary big deal.

The sounds _Clair De Lune_ coming from down the hall, quickly brought me out of my thoughts as I followed the sound of the music. When I was little my mom used to play classical music all the time, she'd heard it made the child smarter or something, so it was always on, I'd come to love the gentle and relaxing sounds of _Clair De Lune_ and I wanted to find out where the music was coming from. I looked in Alice's room, but she still wasn't in there so I followed the notes and walked further down the hall until I came to a large room, that was partly opened.

What I saw when I looked in the door surprised me. Sitting behind a large Baby Grand Piano, in what I assumed was Esme's piano room that Alice had mentioned in passing one day at lunch, was Edward. The beautiful notes weren't coming from a CD or record player, instead they were being played by the Green Eyed boy from dinner, the very same one that hadn't spoken was now playing -- very well I might add -- One of the most beautiful songs I'd ever heard. I stood there, in the shadows of the doorway allowing the music to envelope me as the notes soothed away all of the tension from dinner earlier.

Edward was a mystery to me. A mystery I desperately wanted to solve.


	5. Harry Clearwater's Famous Fish Fry

**Disclaimer: Don't own them, if I did I wouldn't be wasting my time in college, I'd be reaping the royalties that came from anything Twilight related being sold.**

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It doesn't matter who you are, or where your at, the beginning of the work and school week is not fun for anyone. Well, unless their one of those weird workaholic people that loves nothing more than doing as much work as they can, since I am not one of those people though, Monday's sucked. Especially because Alice decided to come over, per usual and dress me and do my make up. I'd complained, but it had gotten me no where, I was still forced to where the goop on my face, but she did promise to not do my make up for the rest of the week if she got to do it today so that was a plus, I decided as Rose pulled into the school parking lot.

Edward was starting classes today and my stomach was filled with butterflies, as Alice and I walked through the building to the office. Esme and Carlisle had insisted on taking him on the first day, part of me wondered if maybe Charlie had wanted to take me on my first day last week. Had I hurt his feelings when I told him I had a ride with a friend? I hoped not, it's not like he'd ever taken me on any of my other first days, so it probably wasn't that big of a deal.

"Bella and I will take you to your first class." I heard Alice, offer as I pulled myself from my thoughts and looked over to her and Edward. She had his schedule in her hands and I doubted he'd even had a chance to look at it. Poor thing, didn't know what hit him with Alice, I thought with a smile as I walked over to Alice and began looking over the piece of paper, Edward standing as quietly as he had all weekend, off to the side.

"You have first, fourth, sixth and seventh with me." I noted as Alice smiled and handed the paper back over to Edward.

After exchanging smiles with Carlisle and Esme we headed from the office, Edward trailing behind me as the rest of the students began talking lower than they had been when we'd entered the school this morning. I could just imagine what they were coming up with as to why Edward was here. I'd heard some pretty interesting rumor's as to why I was here as well last week. It seemed I was pregnant with some unknown drug dealer's baby and had to come live with my dad for my own safety. There were a few others about my mom kicking me out for having an affair with her husband. The mere thought of it caused me to cringe.

I could just imagine what they were coming up with for Edward, not that I would have to wait long, Jessica Stanley and Lauren Mallory were in mine and Alice's second period class and they would be sure to drill her and me probably, as to why Edward was here and everything else about him. Not that it would really matter what they were told, they'd just make something else up that was more interesting anyways.

As long as something was interesting to them, it didn't matter if it was true or not, I thought as I took my seat beside of Alice and motioned for Edward to sit in the empty seat beside of me. When he obliged, I felt a small smile cross my face. "It sucks having Math first period," I whispered to Edward while Alice was telling Angela about the shopping trip this weekend. "but Mrs. Young is pretty easy." Edward shook his head, and began taking his pencil and binder out, while I did the same.

It didn't bother me that he didn't talk, I knew he would say something to me when he was comfortable enough to. Alice on the other hand was chomping at the bit to get him talking, she'd gone on and on about how she was going to bring him out his shell Saturday night, after her long argument with Rosalie. Which oddly enough seemed to have struck a nerve with her, because she'd been nicer to Edward at Breakfast the next morning and had seemed in a pretty decent mood this morning. As good of a mood as could be expected for Rose, that is.

After lunch Edward, Alice and I headed to Biology. Since we were both new Mr. Banner partnered us up together, which was a relief. Biology was a pretty easy subject for me, I don't know why, I just seemed to understand it, but help from a partner was a welcomed relief. Alice and Angela had been promising to let me work with them if we had a big project that needed handed in, but I felt like I would be intruding. With Edward here I didn't have to worry about doing a project alone, intruding or having to tell Alice no. Lord knows that's something that's nearly impossible to do anyways, she always pouts and argues until she ends up getting what she wants. But, everyone still loved her anyways, because as demanding as she was she was equally as loving and sweet, it was an odd balance but it seemed to work perfectly for her.

Edward had to stay after class to get some things situated with Mr. Banner, he seemed really uneasy about being left in the room alone with him though. When Mr. Banner had told him to hang back he immediately stiffened and I heard a sharp intake of breath, it was almost as if he were scared or something to be alone with him. So, as apposed to heading out and waiting in the hallway I gave Mr. Banner a smile and sat on the desk top. "I'm going to wait here for Edward so I can show him to our next class." I said politely, and smiled when Mr. Banner nodded his head that it was okay.

"We have a test tomorrow, since your new I can let you sit in the hallways while we take it and then you can have a retake next week," I heard Mr. Banner say as I tried to make myself look busy by awkwardly shoving pencils into my backpack. "If you think your ready for a test though, then you can take it with the rest of the class tomorrow. I just wanted to make sure you had the option."

What I heard next stopped me from messing with my notebook. "I'll take it with the rest of the class." A very low velvety voice said, and I stared to see if I had been hearing things. Had Edward just spoken? From what Alice told me he hadn't said much of anything to anyone aside from telling Esme 'thank you' on Friday evening when she showed him to his room. Other than that he'd apparently said nothing else, so I was more than a little shocked to hear him speak to our teacher. The beautiful sound of his voice, another thing that took me by surprise.

"Alright, if your sure."

Edward just shook his head yes, his body still visibly tense as he stood as far away from the desk as possible. Why he seemed afraid of Mr. Banner, I wasn't sure, but it was just one more thing about Edward that made me curious.

I'd half expected him to shoot out of the classroom when Mr. Banner waved to him that it was okay to go ahead and leave, instead he walked to the door and waited for me to join him. "Thanks for that." He spoke softly, so only I could hear him as he began to walk down the hallways. For a few seconds I lost all control and just stood there, mouth wide open. Thankfully he didn't turn back around to see me, so I quickly gathered myself, pretending to be as cool and collected as possible as I walked up beside of him.

"Not a problem." And it wasn't, I was beginning to realize that I would do just about anything to make him feel more comfortable, and the thought scared me a little bit. I'd only known him for three days and already I felt a need to make sure that he was comfortable, that he was okay? It was something I didn't really understand, so I decided not to think about it as we walked the rest of the way to class in silence.

Mindless chattering filled the classroom and overflowed into the hallways, sounds of laughter and squealing could be heard coming from near the door, after another squeal that sounded almost like delight I looked in to see what was going on. Jessica and Mike were hitting each other with pins and acting as if it was hurting them when they did so. Should have known it wasn't anything other than pointless flirting going on, as I walked past them I felt a pin hit me in the side as I turned to look at a smiling Mike who was soon smacked on the arm by Jessica. Guess he didn't get the memo to not flirt with other girls, I decided as I made my way to the back of the class, and finding two seats, one for myself and one for Edward.

By Friday, Edward, Alice and I had a routine. Alice would get dropped off at my house early in the morning still, only this time she drug Edward over with her. I'd have breakfast fixed for them by the time they got here, even if I didn't like the fact that I was having to wake up at six o'clock every morning to do so. In school the three of us and Angela pretty much kept to ourselves, sometimes being joined for lunch by Rose and Felix, although that didn't happen very often since they'd taken to sneaking in quickie's in the woods behind the school, something I hadn't wanted to know but had been told by Alice anyways.

After school was reserved for Alice, Edward and I at their house, or mine if my dad was going to be home in time for dinner. While I cooked we would work on our homework and watch television. Edward still hadn't said anything else, and I hadn't mentioned to Alice that he's spoken to me. It felt kind of odd keeping things from her like that, but at the same time I knew that if I did tell her he'd spoken to me she'd get even more out of hand on her mission to get Edward to come out of his shell. Of course I wanted him to get over whatever it was that was bothering him, but I also knew it was something that couldn't be rushed, and he seemed to appreciate that I didn't ask him a lot of questions, mainly yes or no ones that could be answered with a nod of the head.

"Hey Edward, do you like fish?" I asked him as I noticed a large bag of Harry Clearwater's famous fish fry was in the freezer as well as some fish that Charlie had caught while fishing last Saturday. I'd forgotten about fixing it this week since he'd been working later than usual due to some wolf attacks going on in the area. Leave it to a town like Forks to need the chief of police to work over because of some wild wolves, I thought with a smirk as I noticed Edward nodding his head 'yes' in answer to my question.

"We need to do something this weekend." Alice huffed as she walked back into the kitchen, where Edward and I were sitting at the table, the fish frying in the skillet behind me as I worked on some of my math problems.

"Like what?" If she said shopping, the pixie was going to get herself strangled, she'd already nearly gotten suspended for trying to dress Mrs. Bane, actually, that had been rather entertaining to watch. On Tuesday morning Alice had marched into the teachers lounge carrying her bags of clothing for Tuesday and began lecturing Mrs. Bane on not wearing the brown pumps with her black skirt. I'd stood by the door trying not to laugh while Mrs. Bane had threatened Alice with suspension if she didn't leave. "How about a movie this weekend?" I finally suggested, hoping to keep her thoughts off of changing anymore teacher's wardrobe's. Or mine for that matter.

"Oh yeah, there's that new George Clooney movie out I've been wanting to see."

Not George Clooney again. "Or we could go see that Zombie movie." I suggested as I looked to Edward to save us from having to hear the wonders of George Clooney, from Alice the whole way to the theater. "Zombies?" As Edward furiously shook his head 'Yes' I couldn't help but laugh. This of course caused him to stick his tongue out at me, as I retaliated by rolling my eyes and sticking my tongue back out at him.

"The silent conversations have got to stop between the two of you." Alice fussed as I stood back up to go check on the fish. It wasn't like we were purposefully leaving her out or anything, we'd just developed a way of communicating without talking since he clearly didn't like to talk.

The sound of soft velvet filled the air as Edward laughed, of course this annoyed Alice more and she huffed out of the kitchen leaving me to laugh as well.

"She's knows you can talk, she's not gonna let up until your just as chatty as she is." That was the understatement of the year.

"I know," the trills of his soft and low voice filled my senses, causing me to drop the spatula I'd been holding into the skillet. Hot grease splashed up and burned my hands as I yelped. "Jesus Bella, are you alright?" No, it hurts like hell, I thought as tears began to well up in my eyes.

"It hurts." I managed to choke out as Edward took my arm, and lead me over to the sink, turning the cold water faucet on.

"Hold your hands under there." He instructed as Alice walked back into the kitchen, eyes widening when she saw the tears flowing down my cheeks.

"My God, Bella, what did you do?!"

"She burned her hand," Edward's answer was short as he rushed back over to me, a bottle of vinegar in his hand. "Here, let me see the burns, the vinegar will help."

"I hate vinegar, it smells disgusting." I grumbled as he pulled my hand from under the cool running water, ignoring my protests and pouring some of the offending liquid onto my hand and lower arm anyways. I just crinkled my nose and gagged a little bit. Surprisingly he had been right with his home remedy though because a couple of minutes later the burning had all but gone away. "Where did you learn how to do that?"

"My mom taught me all kinds of home remedies for things when I was growing up." He explained, before heading over to the stove picking up the spatula. I'd been about to remove the fish from the skillet when he'd spoken, hopefully it hadn't burned.

"Plates are over the sink." I instructed Edward as he began to examine the fish, thankfully it wasn't burned because Charlie walked in the kitchen a few minutes later and stated that he was starving.

"Fish fry." I said as Edward plated the fish, and Alice set the table.

"Smells good," He began, removing his hat and gun to hang on the coat rack between the kitchen and the front hallway. "What are you kids doing this weekend"

"We were going to go see some Zombie movie, but I was thinking maybe a sleep over at my house, take out and rented movies may be better." Should have known we wouldn't be going to see that movie that she didn't want to see, I thought to myself with a chuckle as Edward carefully placed the fish on the table and then sat down in the chair furthest from Charlie. He'd frozen up again, I could tell by the look on his face and the way he was sitting straight up, looking completely stiff as he took a silent bite of the food on his plate.

Alice shot me concerned look and I just shook my head 'no', hoping she would understand not to press the issue of Edward's sudden mood change. Thankfully she just smiled and shook her head 'yes', letting me know she'd understood my silent plea.

As we ate in relative silence, I was aware of one thing. Something wasn't right with Edward.

The next evening as Alice and I prepared the couch for our sleepover in the living room of her house she confessed to me that she was worried about Edward as well. "Somethings just not right with him." I had to agree, every time he seemed like he was loosening up or coming out of his shell just a little bit he would revert back, and it always happened when someone else was around.

"I know."

"Maybe we should tell my mom and dad." Alice suggested as she grabbed a bowel from the cabinet and filled it with candy.

"He's probably just shy Alice, give him some time to come around." I was lying, but I couldn't bring myself to let Alice tell their parents, at least not just yet. Something told me that what was the matter with Edward was something he wasn't going to open up about to just anyone. He needed time to come around, and I hoped that he would.

"That's not it Bella, there's something else going on with him,"

"Just drop it, okay Ali, I know there's something else going on with him but he clearly isn't ready to share." I snapped, and immediately felt bad for it. "I'm sorry,"

With a sigh she flopped herself onto the comfortable couch and grabbed the remote. "I know you are," She said before shooting me a smile. "Go get Edward and tell him we're ready to do the movies."

Alice didn't bring anything up to Edward the rest of the night and I was incredibly thankful for that. He seemed okay when it was just the three of us sitting on the couch, but as soon as Carlisle walked in I noticed him freezing up again. A pattern began to form in my head as I watched him visibly relax once Carlisle was out of the room. Esme had come in twice and not bothered him, in fact, I recalled him not being bothered staying behind whenever Mrs. Bane had asked him to.


	6. Emma

**Disclaimer: Nope, not mine.**

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"Bee-lllllaaaaa," Alice's sing song voice said, pulling me from my sleep induced stupor.

"It's eight o'clock, I've already let you sleep later than I ever do, come on and get up I want to go shopping today." She said again, causing a low growl to escape my throat. She knew I hated shopping and she'd promised me we wouldn't have to go again for a while after the last shopping excursion she'd dragged me on.

"Bella's not here," I mumbled, pulling the covers over my head as I heard the sounds of velvety laughter filling the room. I immediately shot up and looked around to see the owner of the voice standing in the door way sporting a smile.

Edward had been with the Cullen's for three weeks now, there hadn't really been anymore incidences with him freezing up, but he hadn't spoken very much either. Generally if he spoke it was to me when we were alone, which had been more often than not the past few days since Alice was infatuated with her new boyfriend, his name was Royce and the guy honestly gave me the creeps, but she liked him and said he was her first boyfriend so I let it go and supported her. It wasn't like there was anything serious going on anyways, just spending time together a couple nights a week after school.

Since Edward wasn't a fan of being around men, not that he'd said anything but I had figured it out -I had a sneaking suspicion Alice knew something that I didn't though. And I had to admit it was nagging me, she'd woken up in the middle of the night after our movie night a couple of weeks ago in a cold sweat, tears pouring down her face but she wouldn't tell me what the nightmare was about. Ever since then though she'd not been as nosy with Edward, hadn't been as pushy and she'd been pushing me to spend time with him. She made it obvious sometimes too; I wouldn't have been surprised if she'd gotten a boyfriend just so she could push Edward and me to spend time together. Why though, I wasn't sure, but ever since her dream she'd bee acting strangely… not that she ever acted completely normal to begin with.

"G'morning Edward," I mumbled my greeting as I felt myself being pulled up from the bed by Alice. It was clear she wasn't going to allow me to get anymore sleep this morning, not that I should have been shocked because she always insisted on having us up at the but crack of dawn even on days we didn't have school. Rose got to sleep in, I would often complain but that never did me any good because Rose wasn't her best friend, I was her best friend and I was the one she wanted to do stuff with she would always say.

And even if getting up annoyed me that would somehow make everything worth it because I had never had a best friend before and now I had two. Although I wasn't sure if Edward even realized he was one of my best friends, I'd never said anything to him but ever since he'd gotten here he was constantly with Alice and I, never making anymore friends, in fact he never spoke in school unless the teacher insisted upon it.

As I made my way past Edward and into the bathroom Alice followed behind prattling on about something or another. It was really to early for me to pay any attention to her so I just let her talk and went on about my mourning routine, since I was over every weekend for the past month and even a couple of school nights here and there I had my own tooth brush and such in her bathroom, which made things immensely easier for me because I barely had enough room to shove my clothes in my backpack let alone a bag of toiletries.

I pulled the purple toothbrush from the little holder beside Alice's pink one and ran it under the water, Alice of course heard the sink and knew I was most likely decent so she pushed the door open –If Edward hadn't been in the hallway she would have come in weather I was decent or not.

"Jeez, Alice knock much?!" I grumbled before sticking the toothbrush in my mouth, enjoying the cool mint flavoring of it. Normally I didn't snap so easily at her, but I had just been drug out of bed at eight in the morning, on a Saturday to go shopping, so nice wasn't exactly on my list of things to do.

"No," She replied offhandedly to me a moment later as she went for her own toothbrush.

"Mind tewwing me why we'we," I wasn't able to talk with the toothbrush and toothpaste in my mouth so after running the bristles over my back teeth once more I spit and turned back to look at her. "Mind telling me why we're going shopping so early on a stinking Saturday?" I questioned, hands on hips as I glared at her.

"I have a date with Royce at four, so I need the day to get ready. Mom promised to drive us to Port Angeles so I could get my outfit and I need your help." She said all in one breath, so fast that I could barely understand a word she had just said, from the look on Edward's face as he peeked into the bathroom shyly from the hallway he hadn't been able to catch half of what she was saying, which caused me to smile.

Alice being Alice though didn't stop for long though, as soon as she had a breath of air she was at it again. "Please Bella; you're my best friend I need your help getting something to wear tonight!" And with that she gave me the lip. That girl knew there was no way I could say 'no' to her pout and she used it against me.

"Fine," I huffed before storming past her and back into her bedroom to get some clothes on for the day. Why Alice thought I could be remotely helpful with anything fashionable I had no idea, she had seen the way I dressed, she constantly mocked me. Not that I saw anything wrong with a pair of skinny jeans, a t-shirt and my favorite chucks. It was Alice who had issues with me wearing clothes that weren't form fitting and generally she wanted me in skirts.

Just as I had predicted shopping had been completely pointless for me. She didn't need any help at all getting anything and had even tricked me into getting a new outfit. How she'd done it I still wasn't sure, but as soon as we got home she told me to go change into my new outfit so that I looked nice while helping her get ready.

Why she needed me to look good while helping her get ready for her date was beyond me, but I didn't feel like arguing and the outfit wasn't so bad. It was a long flowy skirt that was actually pretty comfortable and a brown tank top that matched the brown designs on the skirt.

"Bella, please promise me you'll stay here and hang out with my mom," she began and I knew I wasn't going to be going home any time soon "Or maybe Edward during my date, I need you here to talk to when I get home, and it's not like you have to be home for Charlie or anything with him at the Reservation fishing all weekend. Please." She pleaded, her bottom lip coming out as my will crumpled.

I'd intended to use tonight to catch up on homework since I wasn't going to need to worry about fixing Charlie anything for dinner and Alice was going to be preoccupied with her date but apparently she needed me here for when she got home. Why, I wasn't sure but she said she did so I was going to stay. Maybe Edward and I could work on homework or something; we both had a book report due on Monday.

"Do you ever not get your way?" I grumbled as she stood up from the vanity to admire the outfit and makeup work she'd done.

"My mom told me no when I asked about going to fashion week,"

"How long until she cracks though?" I teased as Alice motioned for me to sit down in the chair she'd just gotten up from.

"She already did, she said she'd send us senior year for my graduation present." Of course she had, Alice and Rosalie generally got what they asked for, oddly though they didn't take it for granted and weren't spoiled. They were, well loved it seemed, never once did Alice give me the impression that she thought herself better than someone just because her parents could afford to get her things most other people's parents could not.

"How about you drag Rose along to fashion week, senior year."

"No can do kiddo, you're my BFF, it has to be you." She said with a chuckle as I rolled my eyes. "Hand me the hair brush, I'm going to straighten your hair and put a little make up on you."

"Why?"

"Because I still have twenty minutes until Royce gets here and I need something to do." She answered quickly as I huffed and sat back a little further when I felt her take my hair in her hands. I'd gone out in regular clothes today, refusing to wear the outfit she'd picked out for me to shop in so I was going to have to submit and allow her to torture me with hair and make up or else I would end up paying on Monday and being forced into one of those tiny skirts and pumps.

The first time I wore pumps I'd almost broken my neck, so there was no way I was ever leaving the house in those again. Alice could get over it.

As soon as she had my hair finished the started on the make up, thankfully I was able to talk her out of too much and ended up just getting a little eye shadow and some lip gloss.

"Oh, you know what; I should put some eye liner on you too…." I heard her muse as she looked me over.

"Alice! Royce is downstairs!" Saved by Mrs. Cullen.

"Crap, now I can't make your eyes look smoky."

"Why do even need make up on, I'm going to be staying in this evening and working on a book report while I wait for you to get home." I complained. Alice just gave me a knowing smile and danced off down the stairs leaving me standing in the bathroom looking like I was ready for a night out on the town.

"How exciting would a night out on the town for Forks be?" I mused with a laugh before heading down the stairs as well.

"Alice get a hold of you?" The velvety sound of his voice caused the usual reaction in me.

"Yeah, she said she needed to kill time before she went on her date." I said as lightheartedly as I could manage even though my heart was pounding and my stomach was doing that weird flip floppy thing. I knew I was blushing, I could feel the heat on my cheeks as gave him a half smile.

I wasn't sure why, but every time I was around him I began feeling more and more nervous, my heart would literally speed up at the sound of his voice, there was also another feeling there I didn't recognize but every time I saw him it felt really, really good. Pushing the thoughts aside I headed over to the couch and sat down, knowing I would end up falling and making an idiot of myself if I was standing too long.

"She did a good job," I heard him say just as Esme walked into the room, her hair was up in curls and she had a beautiful ball gown on.

"Rosalie's at Tanya's house this evening and Carlisle and I are heading to the hospital fund raiser," She began, toying with sapping a bracelet on her wrist. "I left money so you can order pizza or something for dinner if you want to, Edward. Love you." And with that she was out the door followed by Carlisle.

Immediately my teeth found my bottom lip as I looked over at Edward who was still a bit tense from Carlisle walking past him. It had become increasingly obvious that he was afraid of men, or had some issues with them. My only question though was: why?

"Have you finished that book report yet?"

"No, I really should get started on it," I said quietly, not trusting my voice not to shake. "Wanna work on them together?" I suggested.

Edward just nodded his head yes and I smiled at the prospect of sending the evening with him, even if it was just to do home work.

"Cool. I'll order the pizza and then we can get started…" I suggested, knowing he wasn't comfortable speaking to people over the phone, especially when he didn't know the person that he was talking to.

A weak smile appeared on his face as his eyes changed shades just a bit, he looked thoughtful as he spoke. "Thanks…" It was just one word, and it could have easily been him thanking me for ordering the pizza, but for some reason I got the distinct impression it was more than that.

Before I had the chance to say anything back to him though, he was headed up the stairs; leaving my heart pounding in my chest. Why was it he had that kind of power over me that whenever he spoke or even came in a room my whole body reacted? I wasn't even sure if that was even normal, maybe I should ask Alice to have her to dad look at me and make sure I didn't have some weird disease or something.

"Emma?" Edward asked me with a smirk.

"It's one of my favorites, I love Austen." I defended before taking a bite of my pizza. We'd decided to set up shop in the living room, he had the laptop the Cullen's had bought for him sitting out and I had Alice's beside it, making sure I didn't drop food or spill my drink on it.

"I wasn't saying anything bad about it, I actually liked the book." He said after a moment, I just quirked my eye brow at him as if to ask if he was actually serious.

"You read Austen?" I didn't know of many men that would admit to reading Austen, and even fewer that would admit to enjoying reading Austen.

He just laughed, and my heart did that weird pounding thing that I enjoyed so much. "My mom used to love Jane Austen so she would read them to me," He explained as he took a bite of his pizza. "Emma was her favorite; she always told me that if I was a girl she was going to name me Emma." His voice was thick now, and his eyes were darker than normal as I watched him.

"What's her name?" I asked without even meaning to, my voice barely above a whisper.

"Elizabeth," He leaned against the sofa before continuing, and I did the same, pushing my plate of pizza out of the way. "She taught me how to play the Piano when I was little; it was just me and her for a long time." There was a tinge of sadness and longing in his voice as he looked out in front of us, his eyes were transfixed on the wall.

"What happened to your dad?" Hopefully it wasn't too intrusive, I didn't want him to feel like I was being incredibly nosy, but at the same time I needed to know. Okay, I didn't necessarily _need _to know, but I wanted to know.

"He died when I was just a baby, killed in a car accident. My mom raised me on her own for a long time but she married again," For some reason as he spoke about his mom marrying again he tensed up, his throat tightened and his eyes became a much darker shade, almost black. "She thought I needed a father figure, was convinced I couldn't be a healthy person if I didn't have a good male role model." Acid leaked from his voice as he spoke, his jaw clenching and I knew that the subject of his step father wasn't one he was too keen on talking about.

It was his actions and expressions as he spoke of the man that told me he had something to do with why Edward seemed so afraid of men now, as to why Edward was in foster care to begin with. And while I wanted to know, wanted to help him as much as I could I knew that this wasn't the time to push him any further.

Reaching over, I placed my hand loosely on his. He'd stopped talking, his eyes sparkled and I could tell he was trying to keep from crying.

"What book are you doing your report on?" I asked him with a smile, deciding that a subject change was probably the best method, he clearly wasn't going to say anything else on the subject and thinking of it seemed to be upsetting him.

"To kill a mockingbird, it's a favorite."

The conversation from earlier was lost and I could tell that he was relieved by it, his body wasn't as rigid.

"I love it too," I said, a small laugh escaping my lips as I thought back to when I was younger. "I used to have a gold fish named Scout when I was a kid."

"I always told my mom I was going to name my son Boo Radley," He said, causing me to laugh even harder.

"I hope you've changed your mind since then."

"What, I think it's a good name. I can call him Boo for short." He teased back.

"Maybe nickname him Boo Boo or something." I shot back, as Edward laughed; the sound had quickly become my favorite thing in the world to hear because it meant that he was happy, that he was relaxed and not scared. For some reason that I couldn't identify quite yet, I found Edward's happiness was probably the most important thing in the world to me, and it kind of scared me.

"That's a good idea, Boo Boo Masen. We can name the other one Atticus."

"God our kids would hate us, Boo Boo and Atticus!" I said without even realizing I'd implied that we would be having children together, as soon as I did though I could feel the blush creeping up into my cheeks.

"Are we stopping after two or do we need an absolutely horrible little girls name too?" He teased, going right along with my Freudian slip.

"We could always go with Scout, keep it all in the same novel family." I suggested.

"That's perfect; we'll have the most teased kids on the face of the planet."

"It's a good thing names can be legally changed, they'll be lined up outside of the court house as soon as they can talk requesting the name be immediately changed."

The sound of the phone ringing interrupted our conversation, "Hello, Cullen residence?" I said as politely as possible while Edward stood to clear the plates. When the person on the other end asked for Sarah I knew they had the wrong number so I told them Sarah didn't live there and hung up.

"Wrong number?"

"Yeah, wanted a Sarah," I commented as I flopped back onto the floor, the skirt I was wearing twisting around my legs uncomfortably, causing me to groan. "I hate skirts. I don't even know why I have to where one, it's just us." I complained as Edward gave me a smile.

"She's Alice" We both said at the same time, which ended in another laugh before I finally groaned and looked at the computer screen, if I didn't get started on this thing soon I was going to be screwed on Monday.

For about an hour Edward and I worked in relative silence on our reports until the sound of my cell phone interrupted us. The caller I.D said it was Alice, so I flipped it open. "Hey, Ali, are you—"

"_Bella,"_ Her voice was shaking as if she'd been crying and I immediately knew something wasn't right.

"Alice what's wrong?"

"_Bella, I need someone to come and get me… p-p-please."_ My heart was pounding in my chest as I listened to her crying.

"Where are you?"

"_About a m-mile from my house."_

Rain pelted down on the road as Edward and I quickly rushed to find Alice, he'd insisted on driving, seeing as we were both fifteen, didn't have a license nor a car we had no choice but to break the law by first, stealing his foster mom's car, and second, by driving under age. He insisted that since he turned sixteen in June and my birthday wasn't until September that I would be better if he was the one driving, some how it made it less illegal. I wasn't sure on the reasoning, but I did know we needed to get to Alice as fast as we possibly could so I didn't argue; instead I just grabbed the keys and jumped in the car with him. I was driving home though, I decided as he took one more of the curves way to sharply and almost slid off of the road. We were in a hurry to get to Alice, but there was no way either of us would do her any good if we were lying in a ditch dead somewhere because Edward had had a wreck.

"Can you slow down?!" My words were forceful as he took one more sharp turn causing me to lung forward and then hit my head on the back of the seat rather painfully when he sped up.

"Sorry." He huffed before pulling the car over on the side of the road. We were about a mile from the house so it was time to start looking for her I realized as he put the thing into park before turning off the engine and stepping out.

God I hoped she was okay. The call had been short and she'd been crying, that was evident, but she didn't tell me what had happened to lead to her calling me like that begging for a ride home. For all I knew she'd been raped and beaten, left on the side of the road to fend for herself. As much as I wanted it to not be true, that was the prominent thought in my mind as I ran –as quickly as I could without falling and breaking my neck- to the edge of the forest and began looking in the ditches. What if she was laying there unconscious now? The thought caused a nauseous feeling in the pit of my stomach as I kept searching for her.

"Alice?"

The sound of Edward's voice pulled me from my current search in the ditches. "Alice, thank God!" He said again, and I immediately whipped my head around to see her walking towards him. Her hair was messy, and there was a small face print on the side of her face but other than that she appeared to be okay.

"Alice, thank God!" I shrieked out, mud squishing loudly under my shoes as I ran to where she was now standing with Edward, tears clearly evident on her cheeks. "You scared me half to death; I stole your mom's car!"

A trace of a smile made its way to her face. "I never pictured you for grand theft auto." She teased, causing me to smile as well, even if I wasn't exactly in the smiling type mood right at this moment. I was still shaking, my heart pounding and my legs weak from the worry she'd caused me.

"I thought you were beaten to a bloody pulp in a ditch somewhere," My voice shook, but I knew there was really nothing I could do about that right now. "Are you alright, what happened?" Demands probably weren't what she needed at the moment, the fact that she was upset over something was clearly evident on her face; but she'd had me worried that she was near death or something from the call she made, crying.

At that moment, Edward who'd been keeping himself rather quiet walked over to where Alice and I were. "How about we get the car back to the house before Esme finds out we took it, and Alice can explain what happened on the way home." Leave it to him to come up with the sensible reasonable thing to do. If it weren't so obviously brilliant I would be annoyed that he'd thought of what we needed to do and not me. But that would be petty, so I just let it go and shook my head yes.

I felt my body involuntarily shiver as I got in the warm car, I hadn't realized it before but I was soaked, and covered in mud. For the first time in a long time I fully appreciated leather interior on a car. It would make the clean up a lot easier and faster.

"Do either of you have your learners?" Alice asked after a couple of minutes of us just sitting there in the car.

"Uh, no?"

Edward shook his head 'no' as well and Alice just laughed before taking the keys. "Come on, I'll drive us back and explain what happened on the way." She said before trading me places in the driver's seat.

"Sounds good to me," I agreed, and we were off. As much as I hated to admit it she was handling the car better than I could have, then again I had only ever driven once in my life, Charlie wanted to teach me how to drive a stick but we hadn't gotten the old truck from his friend Billy Black yet that he was going to teach me in, so there'd been no driving lessons.

"Alice, where's Royce?" The venom that was visible in Edward's voice pulled me out of my thoughts and chilled me to the bone. He seemed so… mad, I hadn't heard anyone use that tone in such a long time that it scared me.

"I don't know," she said softly, so low I barely heard her.

"Alice…" I prodded, my eyes focusing in on her in the dark car.

"Royce left me on the side of the road," Her voice was grim as she spoke. "He wanted to fool around; I told him I wasn't ready for it… I'm only fifteen ya know? And I… don't know, I just don't want to do anything right now." Of course I understood that, I was fifteen years old and had never even been out on a date let alone kissed a guy. I wasn't even completely sure what 'fooling around' meant. I wasn't naïve, I knew people did it, and I new it was stuff other than sex, but I wasn't sure what all the stuff was. "He didn't understand so well," I could hear Edward practically growl from the back seat, my eyes nearly bugged out of my head but I didn't say anything.

"What did he do?"

"Nothing major, touched my boob and I told him to stop, he told me that it wasn't that big of a deal to get to second base and that most people had already done a lot more than that." It was true, a lot of teenagers explored and had sex it seemed. Rosalie was one of them; she and Felix flaunted their very physical relationship around the entire school. Alice wasn't most people though, and I knew that Royce had been her first kiss. She'd come home a week or so ago and told me all about it, so him expecting more of her so soon was a bit shocking.

"Anyways, I told him no and he tried it again so I smacked his hand away." Her breathing grew heavier and I didn't like where this was going, she was clearly getting upset just talking about it. "He smacked me across the face for smacking his hand away and then he pulled over and," Her voice broke off on a soft sob as she turned the car into the long driveway up to the Cullen's home. "He told me I was a tease, and we were done." Once again Edward made a sound from the back that let me know he wasn't too thrilled with what had happened between Alice and Royce.

"He made me get out, told me I could just walk home, I was a frigid bitch anyways so the cold wouldn't do me any harm."

"I'll kill him!" And I meant it too; I was going to hurt him for what he had done to her.

"No, Bella you won't." Edward cut in as Alice parked the car in the driveway, making sure it was in the same spot it had been when she'd left earlier this evening. "I'll kill him." Edward finished.

"We'll kill him together." I bargained, he shook his head and I smiled.

"Team work is a beautiful thing."

"No." Alice murmured as we got out of the car, "You will do no such thing, just leave it be. Please?" She begged, her gray eyes pleading with me and Edward to listen to her. He didn't seem too thrilled about the idea but soon agreed with a shake of the head, I knew I was going to have to agree as well so, begrudgingly, I shook my head yes also to indicate that I would leave it alone.

"Guys, please don't tell anyone about this." She pleaded while wetting a rag in the kitchen sink only to have it taken away by Edward. When we gave him a confused look he just smiled.

"You're both freezing and soaked, go upstairs, have a hot shower, change into your pajama's and I'll go clean the mud out of the car."

"Edward, no, you're cold and wet too. There's no point in you catching pneumonia either." I scolded, moving closer to the mahogany doorframe.

"It's fine." His voice was low as he got closer to me, that little fluttering feeling in the pit of my stomach that both felt good and weird returned when I saw how upset his face looked. "Bella, take Alice upstairs I need to do something that will take my mind off of this and calm me down, so let me clean the car." His voice was barely above a whisper and I couldn't even form a coherent sound or thought to reply with him being this close to me so instead of saying anything I nodded my head deftly and let him head out the door.

"What was that about?"

"I have no idea… come on, lets go get a shower and ready for bed." I said, my mind still focused on the interaction between Edward and I a few minutes prior. His words echoing over and over again in my head, like a CD set on repeat: '_I need to do something that will take my mind off of this and calm me down.' _The incident wasn't a good one, Royce had been a real jerk but it wasn't like he had done anything. He got pissed off and acted like a petulant child whenever Alice had told him that she didn't want to take things further than kissing for now, but he hadn't actually done anything that he could get in trouble for. Slapping her would earn him some disappointed stares or a few whispers about him being a jerk but that was it.

So why was Edward so upset? He seemed almost rigid as he moved out to door earlier, I noted as Alice and I made our way up the stairs. "What did he say to you before he went outside?" She asked, her eyebrows furrowing as she looked at me. "He seemed really tense."

"Yeah," I agreed as I headed into the main bathroom, Alice walking into her room to use her own bathroom.

The heat from the warm spray of the shower served to sooth my aching muscles and warm me up, I was incredibly thankful for Edward's suggestion. Steam floated from the bathroom as I pushed the door open, making my way down to Alice's room, where she was already dressed and sitting on the edge of the bed brushing her short hair.

"Do you think I should wear my hair a different way?" She asked, as I pulled on a t-shirt and old pair of sweatpants.

"Why?" Her hair looked fine to me, but this was Alice, so she was probably going to go with the newest hairstyle craze.

"Because short hair is kind of last year, I don't know. It's almost to my shoulders now but spiking it out just doesn't look good, it makes me look like that Kate Gosselin lady that has all those kids."

"Who?"

"Kate, you know, Jon and Kate plus 8 or whatever, they have like a million kids and he got caught cheating on her now he's going around sticking his dick in anything that has a hole. " Her voice rose as she explained who the Gosselin's were to me. I'd never heard of them, and Alice seemed to know all too much about their lives. "I just read in like Star magazine or something that he was also fucking the nanny. So that makes his wife's friends daughter, who's also a drug addict, the nanny and then that elementary school teacher." She put the brush down and moved over to the bed, a scowl on her face as she looked at her hair in the mirror once more. "Oh yeah and he was also sleeping with some reporter too, he's a total man whore."

"What about Kelly and his kids though?" I wondered.

"Her name's Kate," She corrected, giving me a look that I was used to getting from my Algebra teacher when I hadn't been paying attention in class. "And their doing fine according to OK and People both." That was Alice for you, her news came from magazines and the latest issue of Cosmo, somehow though she was still one of the smartest people I knew, and one of the most well informed.

It was hours later that I awoke to the sounds of muffled crying down the hall, I wasn't sure who it was or if I was truly awake at first, but when I heard the loud "Get the Fuck away from us!" shouted I knew I wasn't asleep. And neither was anyone else in the house I noticed when I looked over to Alice who had a sad but knowing look on her face. Why wasn't she more freaked out by this? I wondered as I hopped out of the bed, her following behind me. "It's Edward." Was all she said; I walked slowly towards his room, and found that Carlisle, Esme and Rosalie were all standing there as well, Esme with a very frightened look on her face.

I looked to Carlisle, the questions of what was going on clearly visible, from the way he looked at m and spoke. "He's having a night terror." I'd never had one of those, but we'd heard about them in school, it was worse than a nightmare.

"Do we wake him?" Esme asked, her eyes darting to her husband.

"He's already partially awake, it's almost impossible to fully wake someone from a night terror…" Carlisle explained as Edward began gasping for air. Without thinking through what I was doing I walked into his room, it was as if some force was physically pulling me to him. I don't know why, but there was no way I could not touch him, sooth him in some way, so that was what I did.

"Bella!"

Ignoring Carlisle's warning tone I sat down on the bed and began stroking his hair, I felt his body tense for a moment. "Hey, it's Bella, shhh, your going to be fine." I cooed, my hands running through his gorgeous bronze hair, his screaming quieting down little by little before he'd completely calmed and fallen back to sleep.

When I as satisfied that he was asleep again I walked back into the hallway, Rosalie glaring at me. "That wasn't a very smart move; he could've hit you or something and not even known what he was doing." She scolded, before storming off down to her room.

"I'm sorry…"

"It calmed him down… come on, let's go back to Bed." Esme said, putting her arm around me as we walked. "Rose has always been moody."

"Bitchy is more like it." Alice chimed in, causing Esme to chuckle before shooting her a warning glance and mumbling something about watching her language.


	7. The School Dance

**DISCLAIMER: Don't own any of them, so don't sue me.**

* * *

On Sunday morning at breakfast Edward hadn't mentioned anything about the night terror, when I asked him how he slept, he said fine, leading me to believe that he didn't even remember his episode. Once I got home that afternoon I spent the rest of the day looking up things on the internet about night terror's and what caused them.

Staying up until three researching was a bit obsessive, even I knew that and not very smart since I had school early the next morning but I did it anyways. By the time Monday morning rolled around I knew plenty about night terrors and had learned that night terrors usually had an emotional trigger and the person experiencing them usually didn't remember the night terror let alone what had induced it.

That explained why Edward had acted as if nothing happened yesterday at breakfast, I realized as I headed into the school, Alice following behind me talking about some assignment she'd forgotten to finish. I managed to nod my head 'yes' and 'no' whenever she asked questions or throw in a few 'that sucks' every now and then, but other than that I wasn't really paying attention. Instead I was focused on Edward and what could have triggered the night terror. As far as I knew he hadn't had any before that, I was sure Alice would have mentioned it to me, so it had to have been something from earlier that evening.

The only thing I could think of as an explanation for the time being was that talking about his mom had done it, he seemed sad when he talked about her. Somehow that didn't seem to be it though, it was as if I were missing some big piece to the puzzle that was Edward Masen, and I needed to figure out what it was. Or maybe I should seek therapy for my obsession, either way, I had to do something.

With my mind preoccupied I didn't realize that Mike was standing in front of Alice, Edward and I talking for the first few minutes of the conversation "So, do you want to?" I heard him ask.

"Do I want to what?"

"Go to the dance with me this Saturday." Crap! Why did he have to be so nice about everything, I wondered as he looked at me hopefully, my stomach twisting painfully as I tried to think of the best way to let him down easily. 'My dog's going to die that night' 'I feel a cold coming on' 'I'm actually a lesbian and planning on going with Alice.'

"Bella already has plans for the dance." Edward stated; his voice low and smooth, interrupting the excuses that were going through my head.

"I am?"

"Yeah, remember, I asked you yesterday evening?" He said, giving me a look that told me to play along, so I just smiled and nodded. Mike was clearly in shock from Edward talking directly to him so he didn't say much else, instead he just shook his head to let us know he understood and headed off to class.

"You are officially my hero!" No one had ever done anything like that for me before. "Thank you so much, we can tell him we got sick or something when we don't show up." I added with a smile, a sinking feeling that almost felt like disappointment filling my stomach.

"Oh no, you don't!" Alice screeched as we walked into the classroom and took our seats.

"What?"

"Your going to that dance and so is Edward," She said forcefully and I groaned.

"Alice, Edward probably wanted to ask someone else to the dance." I chastised, my cheeks flushing at the situation. A, I wasn't going to that dance no matter what, and B, if Edward was going to go, he would want to ask someone besides me. Again the sinking and sick feeling made its way into my stomach as I felt my chest tighten for a second at the thought of Edward taking someone else do the dance.

"I'd rather not go, but if I were to go with someone it would be Bella," Edward said as the sinking feeling changed into flip flops. It was insane the feelings he caused me to have just by speaking.

"It's settled then, you'll go together and I'll go with Jasper." She sang happily as I looked at her confused.

"Okay, first off we're not going to the dance Alice, get that out of our head now," I warned. "And who's Jasper?" I was sure that I knew almost everyone there was to know at this school and there was no Jasper in the place.

"The new student, he'll start school on Wednesday." How did she know that? "And yes you are going to that dance."

"It actually may be fun." The traitor Edward spoke as my eyes went wide.

"No, it will not be fun! I can't dance; seriously, I should be arrested for even thinking about it, that's how dangerous I am to people if I even try." Sadly, that was the truth; I'd taken Ballet as a child and tripped on causing half the little swans to fall into the small pool we were using for a lake, and the other half to fall off the stage. My mom quickly removed me from dance classes after that incident.

"You're going." Alice sang as the warning bell rang, alerting everyone that they had five minutes left to get to first period.

No, I wasn't going, she'd see, but that wasn't what I wanted to talk about, I wanted to know who the Heck Jasper was. No one had said anything about a new student, and I knew that if there was going to be one, especially a male, Jessica and Lauren would have been all over that information. "Alice, how do you know there's going to be a new student?"

"His dad's got a job at the hospital, he's a doctor and my dad mentioned it to me this morning… he asked us to show him around and maybe take him to the dance with us this weekend…" She said, her almost as if it were something I should have known. "I told you about it on the way to school."

As the teacher was putting notes on the board I gave Alice a small smile and said "By the way, I'm not going to that dance." And I wasn't, there was absolutely no way that I was agreeing to that and she could just deal with it.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"I still don't think heels are a good idea for me," I complained as Edward helped me up the steps to the gymnasium, where the spring fling dance was being held. I'd already tripped three times in the parking lot, and almost taken a nose dive into the pavement when we were getting out of Esme's mini van. Edward had stayed right by my side though, never offering to rush ahead of me, or go meet up with more interesting people. Maybe go find a prettier date, I thought with a grimace.

There was no doubt that he could have anyone in the school, with his perfectly chiseled jaw line, Moss colored green eyes with their flecks of gold, the weird disarray of copper colored hair that always stuck out in a different direction but still managed to look perfect. Sex hair was what Alice said it was, I didn't care, all I knew is that it was different and fit him perfectly. His build was taller than mine, I was around five feet four inches tall, and he was probably a good six two or six three. He was trim but not too thin, and his arms were slightly muscular. All in all, the boy looked like some sort of a gorgeous Greek god and I looked like the ugly step sister. How I ended up at the dance with him as my date was nothing short of mystery to me.

It wasn't like I was ugly, I knew that, but I also knew I wasn't pretty either. I was small, my body like a stick figure, barely any curves, I had average size breasts, no hips and boring brown eyes to match my plain brown hair.

"You'll be fine, just hold on to me all night," He whispered in my ear, sending shock waves through my system and affectively pulling me from my inner musings. His warm hand stayed wrapped around mine as we made it to the refreshment table. His breath caressed my neck as he moved back to whisper in my ear once more. "I forgot to tell you earlier you look beautiful." My stomach clenched and my eyes fluttered shut as I tried to keep some composure.

In the last week I'd come to realize the reactions that Edward was causing in me was because I had a crush. At least that was what Alice told me it was whenever she saw the way I grinned goofily one night as he headed up the stairs for bed. I just had to make sure that he didn't find out, there was no telling how he would react, and the possibility of that reaction being him distancing himself from me or shutting down again and not speaking was something I couldn't bear.

It had been working pretty well too, but with his nose so close to the hollow of my neck I was having a difficult time keeping my balance, he made my legs feel like jell-o. "You should wear blue more," God what was he trying to do to me I wondered at his final revelation? My jelly like legs suddenly wobbled, causing me to trip, and stumble a bit before catching myself.

Terrific move, I grimaced before looking up at him with the best smile I could muster up. "I told you heels weren't a good idea."

He only chuckled, and put his arm around my waist, pulling me closer to him as he did so. "I guess I'll have to hold onto you a little bit tighter than." Goosebumps rose on my arms, and I was thankful for Alice allowing me to keep my hair down as I let the loose ringlets fall over my face, covering the blush that I was sure probably resembled a tomato by this point.

"Oh my God, Bella, guess who I'm here with?" shouted Jessica as she speed walked through the double doors at the entrance of the gym and across the skidded up wooden floor to the refreshment area.

Trying to fight back a laugh at her enthusiasm, I bit down on my bottom lip harder than usual, the pain helping balance out the urge to laugh. "Who, Jess?" I could feel Edward's arm tensing around my waist as we watched Mike Newton walk through the gym, Jessica's brown jacket in his hands as he made his way towards us.

"Mike, look, Edward and Bella are here!" She called, before turning back to me, her strapless red dress sliding down her chest, revealing more cleavage than necessary.

"Hey guys," Mike sat the jacket on one of the chairs near the punch table, before allowing his eyes to travel over me, and I suddenly regretted allowing Alice to talk me into the little blue mini dress. "Maybe we could switch off dates sometime later, Eddie." I think Mike meant for it to be a joke but it came out all wrong and I could swear I heard Edward growl beside of me.

"Bella said no to coming to the dance with you, just accept the rejection and move on." The voice of my savior, also known as Alice said rather firmly as her and Jasper finally made their way over to us as well. Apparently the refreshment stand was the place to be during Forks high dances.

"I was only kidding,"

Jessica just huffed and rolled her eyes, "come on Mike, lets go dance." She suggested, and in that moment I felt like giving her the biggest hug in the world because it got Mike out of the way and Edward immediately loosened up.

Alice and Jasper were inseparable the entire night; it was really kind of nice actually. Wherever Alice went Jasper was right behind her, the perfect gentleman and his accent seemed to have charmed everyone. Weather or not there was anything more going on between the two than just good friendship at the moment, I wasn't sure, but there was definitely more _there_ than friendship. If that made any sense at all, the way he looked at her you could just tell, when they danced he held her close to him, when she spoke it was as if everyone else in the room vanished, and I found myself a little jealous.

It's not that I wasn't fine with not having anyone, that didn't bother me per se, what was getting to me though was now that I realized how I felt about Edward, I also had to accept that he wasn't going to feel that way for me. Seeing Alice and Jasper so close, seeing how he looked at her made me long for Edward to give me that kind of a look.

"You've been staring at Alice and Jasper all night, do you want to go dance too?" I heard Edward ask as the notes to yet another slow song filled the gym.

"Dancing, or licking out oil fires with my tongue?" I said, making my hands look like scales, moving them up and down before putting one a lot higher than the other. "I'll take licking out oil fires with my tongue." I concluded, Edward laughed.

"I'd actually kind of like to dance…" he admitted to me after he stopped laughing and I felt my heart sink.

"Oh," was my brilliant response as I looked down, the floor suddenly the most interesting thing in the room. "If you want to, I won't stop you and I'm sure everyone here is dying for you to ask them."

"Let me rephrase that," He said, his finger coming under my chin, gently lifting it so that I met his eyes. "I'd really like to dance with my date, no one else, just you, I know you seem to think you're going to injure me if I get you out there, but I assure you, I'll be fine." The rough padding of his thumb made its way over my cheek, before he pulled his hand away and diverted his gaze.

Awkwardly I looked away, that didn't help my heart any though, it was still beating like a jackhammer at a construction sight and I was sure if I tried to stand my legs would be as wobbly as they felt. "You're sure you don't want to ask someone else?" I asked a second later, trying to buy myself a minute or so more before having to stand up from the chairs we'd been sitting in most of the evening. "I'm pretty sure Mi—" The small voice in the back of my head that sounded like a mix between my dad and my seventh grade English teacher Mrs. Elsewick, reminded me that some things I couldn't joke about with Edward. Male's period seemed to be among those things, Mike Newton especially.

"Pretty sure, what; Bella?" He asked; his brow furrowed a bit.

"Ah, nothing, nothing, if your willing to risk serious injury and possibly death then so am I."

"It's all in the leading." He teased as he stood, offered me his hand, which I quickly took, and lead me across the scratched and scuffed wooden floor until we were a fair distance away from everyone else that was dancing. "I'm willing to risk my life," he began; a lighthearted and teasing smile on his face. "But risking the lives of others probably wouldn't be a good idea." I smiled in agreement.

While we danced Edward held me close, his arms gently placed around my hips while mine twined around his neck. The electric current that always seemed to be there whenever we touched was still present, it wasn't shocking though, it was like I was pulled to him and when we were touching, or near, electricity flowed between us in a comfortable hum, like a candle flickering in a dark room.

His hands trailed gentle circles over my hip bone, Goosebumps rose up on my skin, under the silky blue fabric of my dress as his hands continued to move, making me wonder if it was something he was doing on purpose or if it was an unconscious behavior. Whatever the reason though, I had to admit I enjoyed it, even though I could feel my knee's turning into a boneless mess of jell-o, and I knew that if I didn't end this soon I was going to end up letting him in on the little secret of just how much being near him, touching him, affected me.

The final notes to the song died out on the speakers, and as much as I wanted to stay in his arms for just one more moment, to allow his hands to continue the movements on my hips and side that gave me such a pleasant sensation, I knew I needed to pull away, to get out of the little bubble we'd found ourselves in during the dance, and I needed to get out soon. With a reluctant smile I pulled away from him, my arms draping at my side as I chanced a glance up, finding a goofy and crooked smile plastered on his face. "Thanks for not letting me kill anyone…" I murmured before backing away from him, making sure the heel of my shoe didn't catch on one of the deeper scratches in the floor and send me stumbling backwards into a large group of dancing students. I'd be the laughing stalk of the school then for sure.

"Anytime,"

My hands found the sides of my dress and I smoothed out non existent wrinkles before looking at him again, my blush subsiding just a bit. "It's probably almost time to go," I realized, my eyes darting to the clock on the wall above the basketball hoop. It was old, and had a protective cage over it to keep the balls from breaking the class cover, but I could still easily make out the time. "It's nine forty-five; Esme's supposed to be here at ten."

"And it's going to take a while to get Alice to agree to leave." He added; the walls he'd built around himself before coming to live with the Cullen's dropping down more and more. From what Alice told me there had been no more night terror's either. After that Saturday night, he was fine. Even though I liked him being fine, it still wasn't lost on me that something that happened that night had caused the reaction he had. I just wasn't sure what that was, and he didn't seem too open about discussing his family with me any further than he already had. And as much as I wanted to know everything there was to know about him, I also knew that if I pushed and prodded him for information he wouldn't be so open with me anymore. It would only serve to annoy him and possibly help him rebuild some of the walls I'd managed to carefully break through.

His arm took up its earlier position across the small of my back, wrapping around my waist a little bit as he led us over to the darker corner of the gym. Alice and Jasper were just staring at each other and I found myself wondering if we may have interrupted a staring contest or something. "Uh, Alice," her eyes broke from Jasper's as she looked to me for a brief moment, letting me know that she heard me before she turned her attention back to Jasper. "Your mom's going to be here in a few minutes." That still didn't seem to register with them, I felt bad for interrupting this moment but we needed to get outside so we didn't keep Esme waiting.

"Alice that means move your ass." Came the semi familiar voice and I turned to see Rose's good friend Tanya Spencer. She was dressed in casual jeans and a spaghetti strap shirt appropriate for an early May evening anywhere else, Forks however was still a chilly fifty-five degrees after dark though.

"What are you doing here Tanya?" Alice asked; interrupting my thought process on how cold Forks really was compared to anywhere else in the continental US during May. "The dance is only for freshman and sophomore's..."

"Your mom sent me to get you guys," She turned to look at me, a nervous smile on her face. "Esme wanted to know if Alice and Edward could stay over at your hose tonight. Something's…. ah" Her voice trailed off for a second "Something came up."

Furrowing my brow, I looked at a confused Alice then back to Tanya. "Uh, sure I guess… is Rose going to stay too?"

"No, just Alice and Edward." That didn't make any sense at the moment, but I didn't ask questions, I just nodded my head in agreement. Charlie wouldn't mind Alice being there, Edward may be a different story but I was sure that if I explained to him that Carlisle and Esme needed them to stay he'd be fine with it.

After we had dropped Jasper off at home, Alice turned to look at Tanya. "Alright, what's going on? Why can't we go home tonight?" Her voice was low and demanding.

"There's some stuff going on with Rosalie and they need to focus on her tonight."

"Is she okay?" I asked, wondering what could possibly be the matter with Rose, she'd seemed fine when we left for the dance earlier, a little jittery and on edge but other than that she'd been fine and I didn't pay anymore attention to it.

Tanya's eyes drifted to the steering wheel, "Yes and no, she's not sick, per se…" her voice trailed off and Alice and I shared confused looks.

"Again, what the Hell is going on?" My sweet pixie like friend demanded in a voice that would scare almost anyone.

"It's not for me to tell; you'll find out sooner or later, just, drop it for the night. I promised Esme I'd get you guys to Bella's and that's it."

That wasn't it though, Alice ended up pestering Tanya to no avail on the way to my house. The older Blond girl wouldn't budge from her stance on not saying anything else and Alice wouldn't let it up either. I didn't know what to do so I just sat in the back with Edward, completely quiet. He didn't seem to know what to do, and neither did I. Alice and Tanya remained in a 'yes' 'no' match. It was clear that Tanya wasn't going to give up whatever it was that was going on with Rose, but Alice being Alice wouldn't let up, she even refused to get out of the car for ten minutes after we'd arrived at my house. Charlie ended up having to come out, and physically remove her from the car while she kicked her feet out like a child and demanded to be put down.

"Alice, I just got off the phone with your parents, they need you guys to stay here with Bella for tonight; I promised them I would keep you here so that's where your going to stay." Charlie said in his gruff 'I mean business' tone, his arms crossing over his chest, no sign of wavering in sight.

Alice, just _'hrumphed'_ and stomped up the stairs, her way of letting everyone know that she wasn't very happy. I was going to go after her and let Edward go up to Charlie's room with him and get something to sleep in when I noticed that he was nearly rigid beside of me. "I'm going to take Edward up to your room and get him something to sleep in, and then I'll try and calm Alice down." I told my dad as I took Edward's hand and led him up the stairs, he remained stiff beside of me and I knew this was going to be a difficult night for him.

He'd been in my house a ton of times over the past month, and every time Charlie was around he tensed up, like he was now. There was no way he was going to be able to sleep through the night if I left him on the couch either, and I worried he may end up having another night terror, so after I'd gotten him a shirt and old pair of sweats to sleep in I went to the hall closet and grabbed Charlie's old sleeping bag. Having a boy in my room wasn't something he was going to approve of, but he had to know that with Alice there we wouldn't do anything. _He wouldn't do anything with you anyways, _I chided myself before walking back into my room and laying the sleeping bag out on the floor below my bed.

Alice was sitting in my desk chair, arms over her chest, dress and high heels still on pouting. Actually pouting her lips was poked out, and her chin crinkled up, the whole nine yards. "Alice," I said, softly, as I walked over to my dresser and pulled out a pair of holey sweatpants and an oversized 'Radio Head' t-shirt that used to belong to my mom during one of her many musical phases. "I'm going to go get changed then you can have the bathroom." She didn't respond, just sat there. I knew she was worried about Rose but she was being childish and she knew it, so I opted to just let it drop for the time being.

The cool cottony fabric of my t-shirt felt so much better than the constricting dress, the pajama's weren't the most flattering thing in the world, and I suddenly found myself wishing I had pajama's like Alice wore, the cute silk things from Victoria's Secret, I'm sure they would have looked a lot better on me than what I was currently wearing, but at the same time I couldn't bring myself to care very much about clothing tonight. There were more important things going on than looking like a mess in front of the person I had a crush on, a crush that was never going to amount to anything anyways.

Tonight I needed to worry about Alice, and getting her to calm down a bit. She was worried sick about Rose, and although pouting like a child I knew that she was only acting like this because she was worried about her sister, to be asked to stay at someone else's house out of the blue and told that it was because something, although that something couldn't be shared, was going on with a sibling had to be hard, I'd never had a sibling before but I know I would freak out if Phil had suddenly told me something was going on with Renee and I needed to stay somewhere else but wouldn't tell me what was wrong.

I washed my face in warm water, allowing the make up remover that Alice had bought me to do its job and clean the gunk off of my face. It felt so good to wash that stuff off too; it was so heavy and just felt unnatural. I wasn't sure how people managed to wear the stuff day in and day out and not have any problems with it. After I was sure that the makeup was gone from my face I brushed my teeth as quickly as possible, rinsed with mouth wash and ran back to my room to find Edward was sitting Indian style on the sleeping bag and Alice had still not moved from her spot at my desk, her legs were still in the same position but the pout was gone, replaced now by a blank look.

"Is she okay?" I asked, taking a seat next to Edward, pressing my back against my bed for support.

"She won't even talk," He said, his voice low as he turned to look at Alice. "She's worried about Rose, I don't know if there's anything that will make her feel better until she knows what's going on and why she can't go home." His voice was like cool silk on a warm summer evening, comforting just what I needed to relax a little bit. Alice was upset, but she would be fine tomorrow whenever she got home and found out what was going on. I just had to let her ride it out for now.

We sat in a comfortable silence for a few minutes, both of us staring ahead at the wall before something popped into my head. "Are you going to be okay staying here?" He was tense when we came in and I wanted to make sure this wasn't going to be too much for him.

"I'll be fine," He answered softly, his eyes trained on the wall ahead of him, not moving an inch. I hoped he was telling the truth and would be okay with things, Charlie may be a bit gruff but he was still a big teddy bear, he'd never do anything to hurt Edward or anyone else for that matter.

"I better get Alice something to where…." I told him after a few more minutes of silence, he shook his head yes agreeably, and gave me an appreciative smile as I stood up. Once at my dresser I pulled out an old pair of cut off shorts and an 'Oscar the grouch' t-shirt, offering them to Alice. She didn't say anything, just took them and headed for the bathroom to change. I knew it was a lost cause for the night so I went to the bed, flipped the bedside lamp on so she could see when she came in and got under my blankets.

Tomorrow, hopefully we would find out what was going on with Rose and Alice would be back to her old self again. Everything was going to be fine, Rose probably just had a melt down over finals, I'd heard they were incredibly difficult junior year. Hopefully that was all it was, hopefully everything would be fine, for Alice's sake and the Cullen's.


	8. Twenty Questions

**DISCLAIMER: Don't belong to me, just borrowing.**

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The next morning I woke up to find Edward watching me sleep, he was sitting in the rocking chair that was by my window, one of my books folded across his lap and an awkward smile on his face. "What time is it?" I asked groggily, he turned his hand over, checking the black watch that he always had around his wrist.

"It's five thirty." His voice was low, as to not wake Alice.

"How long have you been awake?" My sleep hazed brain was finally beginning to work a little bit as the realization that since he was sitting there reading he had probably been up for a while. Had he even slept, I wondered? My eyes adjusted better to the dark, the clouds outside so thick that the moon was covered making the room basically pitch black.

"Awhile…" his voice was vague, as his head turned away from me, his perfect green eyes locking on the window pain, the tree branch that always brushed against it suddenly more interesting to him than me. It was in that moment that I knew he hadn't slept at all and I wondered if it was because the sleeping bag was uncomfortable. Maybe I should have offered him the bed instead of making him sleep on the floor? But then Alice and I would have been on the floor and there was only one sleeping bag so it wouldn't have worked.

Yawning, I decided I should probably apologize in case the sleeping bag was uncomfortable. "I'm sorry I made you sleep on the floor, if you want Alice and I can get down there and you can get a couple hours sleep in my bed?" I suggested even though I knew that waking Alice up to move to the floor would result in a lot of complaining, and me not getting anymore sleep.

"It's not the sleeping bag, Bella." His voice had a slight edge to it as he turned back to face me again. "I just don't sleep very well at all and I… it's a new place." His voice lowered on the last part, almost as if he were ashamed of not being able to sleep well. "I didn't sleep at Carlisle and Esme's for a week after I got there." He confessed after a moment of awkward silence.

Taking in a deep breath I pulled the warm blankets off my body and lowered my feet to the cold wood of the floor. It may have been May, but Forks hadn't gotten the late spring early summer memo yet, the weather still as cool and rainy as it had been when I moved back here in March. "Go back to sleep Bella, it's too early to wake up." I just ignored him and walked over to my desk chair, plopping down in it.

"I'm up now," There was no way I'd be able to get back to sleep now that I'd had time to fully wake up so there was no use in making Edward sit in the dark alone. "What book were you reading?" I questioned after a second, reaching over and taking the book from his lap. I pulled the small book light from where her had it closed up inside, and focused it on the outside for a moment so I could see the cover and read the title.

"It was the first thing I saw…." He defended as I recognized the title; I had to bite down on my bottom lip to keep from laughing and waking up Alice.

"You never struck me as a 'Romeo and Juliet' person."

"It was there…" He said again, slightly defensively. "Besides, we have to read it for English Lit next year so I was just getting a head start on that."

I rolled my eyes, once again stifling a laugh as to not wake up Alice. "Sure, sure." I muttered, causing Edward to roll his eyes before snatching the book off of my lap and closing it up. "Well, I guess we're done reading the most famous love story of all time. I teased.

"We most definitely are." He confirmed, and I could hear the hint of happiness in his voice, a warm feeling spread through my body starting in my stomach at the idea that I may be part of the reason for the lighthearted and happy tone in his voice. "Bella… thank you."

"You're welcome," I said back automatically, and I could feel my brows furrowing in confusion. "Thanks for what though? I didn't do anything." Well, besides tease him about his choices in literature and possibly make him feel like less of a man.

"For being you…" His words trailed off and his eyes went to look out the window again, his foot tapped lightly on the floor and I noticed that it was in tune with the scratches of the tree branch against the glass. "No one's ever just been there for me before," He continued and I felt my heart lurch in my chest. "People always ask me why I don't talk, you never did; you just accepted it and were still nice to me." His voice was low, almost nervous as he spoke. "Others push and pry to find out what's the matter with me when I start brooding, you just… I don't know you don't push me you just act normal… so just, thank you." I could feel the lump in my throat and knew that I wasn't going to be able keep from crying, and I was suddenly glad that he was still focused on the window and not me.

"So, why do you have a copy of 'Romeo and Juliet'?" Edward questioned; his voice now teasing, the seriousness of his tone gone and I knew that meant the conversation was over. But it didn't bug me this time, little by little he was opening up to me, and this was his way of letting me know that was all he was comfortable saying, for now at least. "Are you like some kind of Shakespeare geek or something?"

"I wasn't the one reading 'Romeo and Juliet' all night," I retorted, my voice thick with emotion, but I hoped to pass that off as sleep.

We continued talking for the next few hours, not about anything too serious, although he did share a few more things with me about his mother. She used to teach Piano out of their house in Chicago to make money when he'd been a little kid, she taught him how to play 'Claire De Lune' when he was six years old, and he'd been playing ever since. Debussy was his favorite, but he also loved Busoni. His favorite color was brown, although he didn't seem to want to tell me why so I just ignored it and went on, we had a lot of the favorite bands, both big fans of the Beatles, Radiohead, Rage against the Machine and Kings of Leon. His favorite food was stuffed shells, he said his mom used to always make them for him as a kid. He told me that Elizabeth had been offered a job as a high school Piano teacher by and old friend in Seattle so they had moved there when he was twelve. That was all he told me about Seattle though, he moved there when he was twelve. That was when the questions had turned to me.

He knew bits and pieces from what I'd told him throughout the five or so weeks he'd been living with the Cullen's but he wanted specifics now. I told him how much I loved Phoenix, how even though my mom was probably the most scatter brained person on earth she'd still been a terrific mother. He told me he'd never lived anywhere warm but he hoped to go to California some day because of the warmer climate. I told him about the vacations my dad and I had taken there up until last summer and he seemed to love hearing some of my more embarrassing moments, such as the time I slipped on boardwalk and broke my ankle. He couldn't seem to get over me coming to live with my dad to give my mom and Phil some alone time although he told me he was glad I had. That of course caused me to blush ten shades of red, I could feel the heat all over my body and was sure that my face wasn't the only thing that was red.

"Favorite Brad Pitt movie?" He was asking as I heard my dad's footsteps in the hallway.

"I don't like Brad Pitt, favorite Clint Eastwood movie?" I countered; we'd been on the subject of favorite movies for about ten minutes now.

"How can you not like Brad Pitt? I thought all women were in love with him!" He demanded; shock evident in his voice - I laughed. Alice had slept through the entire thing and was still out like a light.

"He's a pretty boy, and I don't like what he did to Jennifer Aniston either." I explained as I heard my door creek open, we both turned to see that Charlie had poked his head in.

"You guys need to get ready, I just got off of the phone with the Cullen's and we're going over there in half an hour." He explained before shutting the door behind him and heading back to his bedroom most likely. I stood, stretching my legs and arms before walking over to the bed to wake Alice. Edward warned me that our game wasn't over and we would continue at a later date, my body felt like a livewire as I shook Alice awake, butterflies happily fluttered in my stomach in anticipation of our game being continued.

There wasn't much time for us to all take showers, so we all took turns changing in the bathroom and then met my dad downstairs, where we piled into his police cruiser. We rode in silence, with Alice up front, oddly enough, the only person that seemed to be in a good mood. Last night she'd gone to bed silently, and had cried before falling asleep although she tried to do it silently, I'd expected to find her just as freaked out this morning, and was quite surprised that when I woke her, she wasn't acting nervous or worried, instead she smiled at me and told me we needed to get going. Instead of sulking, she was determined. It was almost as if our roles had been reversed, last night Edward and I told her everything was going to be fine right before falling asleep and she'd been the one who acted as if nothing would ever be okay again. Now we were all nervous –most likely because we'd been kept in the dark and now we were being let in on what was going on- and Alice was the one that was fine.

The car lurched forward a bit as Charlie made a sharp turn into the Cullen's driveway, almost missing it for all the trees. One mire thing Forks was good for, more greenery than one needed, so much so that it blocked off the already secluded driveway to the Cullen's large home. More and more greenery lined the gravel road on either side for a quarter of a mile before we were in the clearing. I was surprised to see that there were more cars here than just the Cullen's. I recognized Tanya's small Sedan, and Felix's Mustang, but there were a couple more that I couldn't place. One was a mini van and the other a small red sports car, with a black Volvo parked beside of it.

"Why are there so many people here?" I asked offhandedly and Charlie just grimaced at me through the rearview mirror before opening his door and getting out. Without another word I opened the side door and stepped out, my black chucks squeaking as they hit the wet ground, thankfully I didn't slip and fall. Alice and Edward walked over to me; Edward had a nervous look on his face and Alice, once again looked determined. She gripped my hand, and then Edward's leading us up to the large white door and inside.

"Mom, we're home."

Alice said in a greeting before heading into the living room, when we got there I realized why the driveway had been packed with so many cars. Rose was sitting on the far right of the room on a cushion. Beside her was Tanya, and it looked like Rose had been crying. Esme and Carlisle were on the love seat; Felix was standing behind them staring at the mantle, his stance tense. On the other couch was a woman in a nice dress suit, a man in a plain black suit with an ear piece in sat on the far end, and a woman in jeans and a nice short sleeved shirt sat in between them. Carlisle's face was grim and Esme looked worried.

"Thanks for coming Charlie," Esme said greeted my dad when he made his way into the living room, her voice wasn't as cheery as it normally was, instead it was strained. Alice walked over and sat down on the arm of the love seat and rubbed gentle circles on her back, her eyes focusing in on Rosalie.

"That's fine,"

"Go ahead and take a seat wherever you can find one," Carlisle said; Charlie stood against the wall looking oddly professional. I wasn't quite sure what was going on.

The man in the black suit gave an annoyed look at Carlisle after a moment. "I don't see why you got everyone gathered together here; it's a waste of our time." He snapped. "There's no way she can keep and raise a child, and Felix will not be held responsible when he's probably not even the father; there's no use in calling the chief of police over." Pregnant?! My mind was racing now and I looked to Alice, she didn't seem the least bit shocked. I didn't see how it was possible, she'd just found out her older sister was going to have a baby and she had the same expression on her face she'd had when she'd walked through the door.

"I'm sure that your Felix is the father, sir, I've known Rosalie since she came to live here with the Cullen's he's the only boy I've ever seen her with," Charlie's voice was full of authority, his eyes darkening with anger.

"It's her fault! As we told the Cullen's on the phone last night she's the one responsible for birth control and she didn't use it. Felix cannot and will not be held accountable for her mistake!" The thought that I had somehow time traveled back in time to the nineteen fifties suddenly crossed my mind as the woman in the nice dress suit nodded her head in agreement. "He's got his whole life ahead of him and a football scholarship the University of Kansas. I'll not have my son pay for her mistakes by giving up his life, and you're not going to make me think otherwise!"

"My ex husband is right Mrs. Cullen, Mr. Cullen." Dress suit woman finally spoke, her tone polite but dismissive. "As we told you over the phone, this is not our problem there was no need for you to call in the law. Just get her an abortion and be done with it, Felix isn't staying behind to help with medical bills or to find some good home for the kid. He graduates in two weeks and then he's off to school, his future is at stake." The fact that Rosalie's future was also at stake seemed to be lost on her.

It was clear that Felix's parent's were not on board for anything and I found myself wondering if we should possibly go upstairs for the rest of this, I felt incredibly out of place all of the sudden and wasn't sure what to do so I just stayed, frozen in place while Charlie sent a look to black suit guy that would have scared me into doing whatever he said. Thankfully that particular look had never been directed at me before, and I decided then and there that my life's mission was to never be on the receiving end of that because when Charlie was angry, he was _very _angry. My dad was one of those types that it took a lot to get them very worked up, but when they were it was never a pretty thing.

And it looked like Mr. James was about to find that out; Charlie walked across the room, completely ignoring Edward and I in the process - to be honest they had probably forgotten we were even in the room by this point- and stepped in front of the man, his arms crossing across his chest as a frown settled on his face. When Charlie began explaining the laws of child support and what the punishments were for not paying it I decided it was time for Edward and I to head upstairs. This was clearly something that we weren't meant to be present for, but with the sudden outburst of Felix's dad it was kind of inevitable.

Grabbing Edward's hand I led him up the stairs, it was clear he'd not been very comfortable in there because when I took his hand in mine it was shaking, and his arms were rigid. We made our way to his bedroom, and I realized it was the first time I had ever been in there. Like Alice's room it was huge, and had a large window wall. Unlike Alice's room though, there was a keyboard sitting on his desk and a bag of clothing, he'd been here over a month, but it looked like he had just gotten there. Upon closer inspection I noticed that his clothes were not hung in the closet and the place was pretty bear aside from a few CD's that were sitting beside the keyboard. It was as if no one even lived in there, and my heart sank.

"How come your clothes are still in the duffle bag?" he'd just finished telling me this morning how much he loved the fact that I didn't push him with things, yet here I was wanting to know why his duffle bag was still filled with his clothes, he'd clearly put them back in there after they'd been washed.

My eyes focused on him as I waited for a response that I wasn't sure was going to come. He was sitting on the black leather sofa that was near the glass, his deep green eyes looking into mine with sadness. "I like to be ready to leave when I have to." He finally said after a few seconds and my heart began to ache. Why would he think he was going to leave? There was no need for him to, Esme and Carlisle loved having him there and I knew he was fitting in great with Alice and even Rose had been warming up to him. It wasn't like they were going to just up and ship him off, there was no way that Esme would do that, or Carlisle for that matter.

"I don't understand, Esme and Carlisle want you here, they wouldn't make you leave." My voice was cracking, and I knew that if I didn't get a hold of myself soon I was going to be crying, I just hoped Edward didn't notice.

"It doesn't matter if they want to keep me though," He began, his eyes were lifeless as he spoke and I knew that what he said was something I probably wasn't going to like. "I've been in five different foster homes in two years. Every time they took me away from Demetri I end up in a different foster home, it's easier to just be prepared to leave when it happens." He said and I knew there was no way that I was going to be able to keep the tears at bay now. He couldn't leave, could he? He'd just gotten here, why would they take him away when he had just gotten here, he was doing so well! My heart felt like it was being ripped from my chest as I turned away from him, the one person I connect with more than anyone on earth is someone who could be ripped away at a moment's time.

"H-how long?" I asked after a second, my traitorous voice shaking on the question revealing that I was upset.

"Probably not for a long time," he said, as I felt his hand on my shoulder. "I talked to my case worker last week and she told me that Demetri had been held up in court and until he gets a chance to get in there's no chance that custody will be returned." He said, and I felt myself leaning into him a little more than necessary for a friend to lean on another friend. I didn't care though; my body was literally being pulled to him, his calming touch soothing me a little. "His next court date isn't for at least three months, and who knows, maybe they'll terminate his rights by then." I knew he was just trying to make me feel better, but it did serve its purpose. Not because I was okay with him being ripped out of my life, out of Carlisle, and Esme's lives. It was because I figured that in three months time I could figure something else out, my dad was the chief of police, there had to be something he could do.

That however wasn't something I was going to tell him right now though, so I just turned to him with the best smile I could manage. "That has to suck, going from place to place like that."

"It does, " He admitted, his voice soft as he took my hand and led me over to the black leather sofa he'd been sitting on earlier. "This is the first time since I was thirteen that I've had a friend." My heart ached and my stomach dropped at the term 'friend' being used, no matter how stupid and foolish that was of me. The boy hadn't had friends for two years, there was no way he would even be able to have a girlfriend, he probably wouldn't even see me like that if he was in a position to date.

We didn't talk anymore about the subject of him leaving and I didn't press him for details on why he was taken away from his step dad so much. That was something he clearly didn't want to talk about and since I intended to make sure he was around for a long, long time I just let it go. He could tell me when he was ready, one day in the future. We'd made enough progress for one day, so instead we picked up our game from earlier until Alice knocked on the door an hour later. "Can I come on?"

"Yeah, come on in!" I bellowed. Edward walked over and turned the CD player off, he'd been letting me listen to a band that I'd never heard of before, and he insisted it was a crime to not know who they were. He'd been right, they were amazing. "Is everything okay now?" I asked her after a moment, my teeth coming out to worry my lower lip.

"Yeah," She lopped down beside of my on the leather sofa and laid her head on my shoulder. "Rose is two months along give or take; she's known for about a month but didn't know how to tell our parents." My hand played aimlessly with her cropped locks as Edward came over and took a seat beside of me. "She and Tanya told them last night and they flipped apparently, from what Rose said Esme was crying and Carlisle threatened a home vasectomy on Felix, who isn't stepping up the plate by the way."

"When Edward and I came up here Charlie was threatening to have him arrested if child support wasn't paid…"

"Well, she doesn't know yet if she's going to keep the baby or give it up for adoption but either way his parents are going to help pay for all medical expenses and if she decides to keep the baby they'll give her child support once a month," She chuckled and I knew that they had probably been all to willing to do whatever was asked of them by the time Charlie had finishes speaking. "Needless to say Rose and Felix are over, Tanya and Carlisle both chased him out of the house about ten minutes ago and let him know that if ever showed back up he'd be shot. Your dad said he'd heard there were a lot of hunters in the area so if he did end up shot he'd make sure hunters were the listed cause."

"Is everyone gone now?" Edward asked, from his place beside of me.

"Yep, Charlie just took off too; he said we could drive you home later, my mom and dad wanted to talk to the three of us downstairs in a few minutes…" She explained and from the tone of her voice I knew it wasn't going to be something very pleasant.

~*~*~*~*~*~

I wasn't sure what we were in the living room for but it didn't seem like something we were going to enjoy. Rosalie was sitting on the couch beside of Esme who looked as though she'd been crying. Of course she would be crying, I reminded myself, her daughter had just told her that she was pregnant. Rose looked more than just upset, she looked almost terrified and I somehow doubted it was so much what Carlisle wanted to discuss with everyone, so much as the fact that she was going to have a baby that had her terrified.

Alice was on the love seat, her legs across my lap when Carlisle walked in the room, a plastered smile on his face. "Good, our all here." He mumbled a little too cheerily before walking over to the DVD player and sticking in the shiny silver disk.

"Dad, please don't," Rosalie grumbled, earning her a glare from Esme. Apparently playing the supportive mother to her pregnant teenager did not include allowing her whining privileges. Not that I could blame her, Rosalie was lucky she hadn't been kicked out of the house, which is probably what would happen to me if I ever came home pregnant, either that or Charlie would take off with his rifle to hunt down whoever did it to me.

The sound of screaming pulled my eyes from Rose and Esme's interaction; and to the television where what sounded like murder was taking place. As soon as my eyes took in what was on the screen though, I regretted ever looking away from them. It was a close up of a woman's vagina, while the woman screamed bloody murder.

"I figured Rose should see what she's in for in seven months," Carlisle began, a wicket glint in his normally cheerful gray eyes. "I figured it was also something you guys would want to see." Clearly he had figured wrong, but I knew that was really his way of saying 'watch the video; see what happens when you have sex?' Alice's face fell and my eyes moved from Carlisle's, to the television, and then back to Carlisle as I heard the woman scream out again.

"Mary was a teenage mother, sixteen and pregnant with twins, but she wasn't big enough for them to be born without some tearing." Carlisle explained, as he paused the DVD in the worst possible angle. "Dr. Deveron is going to have to perform an episiotomy on her." Suddenly I was glad that I'd skipped breakfast, because I had paid enough attention in health class to know what an episiotomy was. "Now," Carlisle said, pressing play. "Watch this, see the incision he makes right," he moved his finger to point to the screen, making sure our eyes were all looking at it. "Here?"

I turned to look at Rose who looked as if she was going to be sick, shaking her head yes. "That's the episiotomy, but it wasn't big enough for the twins so they had to get," he paused for a moment as we watched to large, very shiny medal objects that were rounded at the bottom being handed to the doctor. "Forceps!" Oh this man was evil, it was clear he was enjoying our reactions all too much, not that I could really pay attention to that when the man stuck the two large medal objects inside of the woman gripping what looked like some kind of an alien monsters head.

"I'm never having sex again." Rosalie murmured in disgust.

"I'm never having sex period." Alice chimed in, her face taking on an interesting greenish shade. I chanced a look to where Edward was sitting on the floor to find his eyes wide with horror as well.

"Sex is definitely not an option for me… ever." I decided to throw in, my eyes going back to the television set to see this disgusting looking thing covered in goo and blood being handed to a doctor while it screeched bloody murder.

"That's the first; he weighed in at seven pounds even." Carlisle explained as the camera shot back to where I really didn't want it to shoot back to, she was screaming again and the doctor had the large metal sticks of death inside of her once more pulling out another baby. "This one's Derek," To be honest at the moment I really didn't care what the baby's names were, but Carlisle didn't seem to care as he narrated the rest of the video, down to the afterbirth. Something I felt should have been left out, but he thought it was good that we see the 'whole experience' as he put it.

Finally, once Carlisle had shown us the video of a woman getting an epidural – something that looked incredibly painful, seriously, who knew those needles were so long?! – he put the DVD's up while Alice called Charlie to ask if I could stay over. Carlisle picked the phone up and mentioned the possibility of a few more DVD's he wanted to show which had my lovely father all to willing to agree. Thankfully Rosalie had an appointment with the OB/GYN tomorrow so we weren't kept up too late with Carlisle's idea of an abstinence speech.


	9. First Kisses

**A/N: So, I am continuing the story, and since I am there will be longer chapters, I have gone back and revised this by combining chapters and so forth. I also added onto the ending, so I hope everyone enjoys. Next chapter should be up sometime next week, I am currently dealing with finals and a family tragedy, but I will be back full swing next week.**

**DISCLAIMER: Not mine at all.**

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The last three weeks of school seemed to fly by without anymore major surprises. Other than the fact that there were two days of sunshine in one week, which completely surprised me, Charlie said it got better during the summer that there was more sun than usual and the temperature was warmer but I was still having a hard time believing that. Edward had mentioned that Seattle was always pretty in the summer, and though it was often overcast it was fairly warm sometimes; temperatures reaching into the eighties, he figured since Forks and Seattle weren't too far from each other the weather couldn't be that different. My personal take on the subject though had been to tell them "I'll believe it when I see it."

"Trust me on this one; it's not going to be freezing all year 'round." Edward had explained; which had gotten him an eye roll from me a couple of nights ago.

School let out on June the seventh, once all finals had been completed. Edward and I both received A's in out Biology and English courses, Alice had gotten a B in math, although I figured it had more to do with her lecture on proper shoe wear, male or female, she had given to the teacher. Over all though, we had all done pretty well, earning us a night out in Port Angeles with Esme, Carlisle, Rosalie, and Charlie. They treated the four of us to dinner at a little Italian restaurant and then took us to a movie. Edward and I sat beside of each other all night with Alice on the other side of me. Rosalie however opted to sit with Esme, Carlisle and Charlie in the back of the Theater.

Since Rosalie had dropped the bomb shell on us, that she was pregnant, she'd become very withdrawn, opting to stay with her parents as apposed to interact with people from school. She'd yet to tell anyone we went to school with about the pregnancy, but they all knew something was going on. Rosalie Cullen was known pretty much as the Queen Bee, she dated the captain of the football team, Felix James, was too good to do any cheerleading, opting instead to do local modeling. (Alice had actually just told me that a few days ago when I'd discovered a picture of Rosalie hanging up near one of her favorite stores in the Port Angeles mall.) Needless to say she was always invited to all of the parties, and when she opted to go to dinner with family and friends of the family as apposed to going to the Alec's parent's cabin, for the big blow out, the gossip began.

Jessica and Lauren had actually three way-ed me the night before last to ask if it was true Rosalie had the Swine Flu. When I'd told them 'no' on that they were soon to ask if it was true she was having an affair with coach Clapp and had been caught on camera. Much to their dismay I had to dispel that rumor as well. It was almost as if they wanted these things to be true, wanted her to be anorexic, sleeping with one of the teachers, or the most creative I had heard yet, a part time porn star. Mike Newton had started that one only to have Tyler and Eric go right along with him.

Rose was already three months pregnant, and knew that she wasn't going to be able to keep it a secret for much longer, especially in a town the size of Forks, so she was planning on letting it out there by the time school started back in the fall – something I did not want to think about. It was only early June but I was enjoying the summer entirely too much to think about it ending any time soon. As I sat between Alice and Edward, our eyes focusing on the movie, I smiled, pushing all thoughts of summer ending and school beginning again from my head.

We'd settled on seeing the latest Brad Pitt movie, – Alice's choice – and I wondered if Charlie had dozed off yet, the image of him and Carlisle with their heads on each others shoulders as they snored away crept into my head causing me to – as softly as possible since we were in a movie theater – laugh. Normally Charlie wasn't one to go out to movies or anything like that, but tonight was a reward for the end of our first year of high school being completed successfully, so he'd been willing to miss out on the fishing tournament – which was being recorded by his friend Billy Black, out on the Quileute reservation, for him – and come out with us. Why anyone would rather watch the 'Hunting and Fishing' network as apposed to… well, anything else was beyond me, but it was one of his favorite channels; next to ESPN, of course.

I couldn't help but be aware of how close Edward and I were, of the electric current that seemed to stay at a low hum as we sat in the dark theater. If I moved my hand out just a little bit, I would be able to take his in mine, of course, I was too big of a chicken for that so I just sat there, thankful that he couldn't see the blush on my face while we were in the dark.

"I can't believe they killed him off at the end!" Alice groaned as we all made our way outside of the Theater. I just smiled and nodded, to be honest I wasn't quite sure what had happened in the movie, nor did I care. Being out with my father and my closest friends was what I enjoyed about the evening, it was nice to see a movie with everyone, but I didn't particularly care for the movie. Besides, how was I expected to concentrate on any movie with Edward sitting beside of me?

"Yeah, I completely didn't see it coming."

"Brad Pitt's amazing." She said as we made it to Esme's mini van. I just shook my head not wanting to get Alice started on a lecture of Brad Pitt's finer performances if she were to find out my own personal thoughts on him

Edward snorted and Alice gave him a puzzled look. "Bella hates Brad Pitt; don't ya Bella?" He asked me with an evil smile on his face.

"No she doesn't, every girl loves Brad Pitt." Alice stated firmly, turning to smile at me. "Right, Bella?"

I turned and shot Edward the dirtiest look I could manage before turning back to Alice. "He's right; I actually don't like Brad Pitt." Alice's eyes widened in shock as and I shot Edward a death glare, he was going to pay for that one later, "Your dead, Masen."

"What did Edward do?" Asked Carlisle as he and Esme got in the car, minus Rosalie, I furrowed my brow and turned to look behind us as the van roared to life.

Were they just planning on leaving her behind at the Theater? I knew they weren't happy with her for getting pregnant, but there was no way they would just do something like that. "Where's Rose?" I asked Esme, who was in the process of pulling her shoulder length caramel hair into a ponytail.

"Your dad took her home about half way through the movie," She explained as she pulled the final strands of hair through the black band. "Morning sickness isn't exclusive to mornings." So that was why Charlie hadn't been around when we headed out to the car, I thought he'd just gone to the bathroom or was maybe still snoozing in the theater.

"That's for sure," Alice chimed in; all talk of Brad Pitt obviously forgotten, to my complete relief. "She's woke me up puking at twelve thirty every night this week." My stomach twisted in uneasy knots at the thought of puking. Unfortunately for me the rest of the car ride home focused around morning sickness and how it was worse than the stomach flu, sometimes.

That statement was made by Carlisle; and immediately had Alice arguing, explaining how the stomach flu she had last year had been a lot worse than Rose's morning sickness now. I honestly thought I was going to have to let Carlisle pull the car over so I could throw up whenever they began discussing what Alice's stomach flu entailed compared to Rosalie's morning sickness, by the time we pulled into the Cullen's driveway I had vowed never to do anything in the medical field once I completed high school.

The cool air that greeted me as I stepped out of the van was an unusually welcomed relief, it helped cool me down and settle my queasy stomach before I headed into the house alongside Esme and Edward. Alice and Carlisle were still in the car arguing it seemed.

Charlie was sitting on the sofa; his face had a horrified expression, his eyes wide as he read Alice's latest issue of Cosmo. Clearly he was bored, I thought with a chuckle as I walked over to where he was and took the magazine out of his hand. "Trust me; it's too complicated to explain why anyone would choose to read this." I said, causing him to give me one of his typical Charlie Swan half-smile's. Edward went ahead upstairs after waving to Charlie from across the room and I knew it wasn't because he didn't like Charlie, rather that he wasn't comfortable around him, so I didn't press the issue.

Esme walked into the living room after slipping off her shoes in the Foyer. "Thank you for brining Rose home for us," Her cool blue eyes sparkled as the light from the overhead fixture caught them.

"It wasn't a problem, Mrs. Cullen." Charlie said as he rose from his spot on the sofa before he looked down at me. "You gonna come home with me tonight Bells, or do you want to stay here?" He knew the answer to that, I'd made it a habit to stay over at the Cullen's on Friday nights because he always went fishing all day Saturday, leaving at the crack of dawn and most of the time not coming home until late in the evening. By this point it was just expected that I was going to be with Alice and Edward on Friday's, but Charlie still gave me the option, even offering to stay home some Saturday's if I wanted to do something just me and him.

I'd taken him up on it a few weeks ago, agreeing to a simple day of eating at the diner for lunch followed by watching a movie on the big screen at home with Charlie's friend Billy Black and his two daughters Rachel and Rebecca. They were twins, both twenty two years old. After their mom died in a drunk driving accident a year ago, they both decided to move back home to help Billy run the 'Quileute wolf reserve'. The tribe had always put wolves on some sort of pedestal; some tribal legends even spoke of leaders being descended from wolves. The reserve ran a total of one hundred and thirty acres into the woods, with fencing all around.

It was a pretty big deal in the state; a lot of schools would make trips to visit and see the wolves, and hear stories about them. There was even an area with domesticated wolves for the children to play with. Rebecca was the on staff vet now, and when possible her and her father made sure to release the wolves back into the wild. The ones they kept in the reserve were rescued from Zoo's that mistreated them or found injured by hunters in the woods, people often hit them with their cars and called members of the reserve staff to come and get them. The ones who could not be rehabilitated enough to make it in the wild with a pack were kept safe in the reserve.

"I think I'll stay here," I told Charlie after a moment, a yawn escaping my mouth as I stood up. "I'll be home Sunday afternoon to fix dinner." Charlie smiled; he wasn't able to fend for himself in the cooking arena so I made sure to be home every Sunday so I could get dinner for him.

"Alright, love you Bells." The words were said very low, the showing of affection and emotion, was not one of Charlie's strong suits. I just smiled up and him and pulled him into a tight embrace before heading to the stairs.

As I made my way up white, cloud like staircase, I heard Esme tell Charlie to send Carlisle and Alice in on his way out. The thought of the two still in the van arguing over which was worse, morning sickness or a stomach virus both amused me and grossed me out.

Thankfully by the time Alice made it up to her bedroom she had her mind on other things, apparently Esme had invited her to come with her and Rose for Rose's first ultrasound tomorrow around noon. She had been hesitant at first, but I told her Edward and I would be fine at the house for a couple of hours and she should go with her sister. This pleased Alice, which in turn made me happy.

We chatted about Rose's pregnancy until about midnight when Alice fell asleep, I could feel myself slipping into the comfortable and welcoming darkness as well, so I turned over and snuggled into the plush pillow, drifting into a dreamless sleep.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Music filled the entire floor of the house as I turned over in the bed, noticing that Alice was no longer there and that light was filtering through her light pink curtains. Rubbing the sleep from my eyes I turned to glance at the alarm clock, it was ten a.m. already, I never slept this late normally, but had to admit it was nice to sleep in.

Stretching my arms, I pulled the warm pink comforter off of me and stepped out of the bed and onto the soft carpet, making my way to the bathroom to brush my teeth. The whole way there the music continued to play, the sounds causing a familiar lump to rise in my throat – my eyes pricked with unshed tears. Sadness was evident in every note that was hit, pain, suffering, and loss. The notes melded into one of the most beautiful and heartbreaking songs I had ever heard in my entire life. In that moment I wanted nothing more on earth than to wrap my arms around the boy I knew was in the other room playing that sad song, and make all the hurt he had ever felt go away.

As I made my way into the hallway after making sure my teeth were clean I heard the sounds of yet another song beginning. It began just as melancholy, wrenching my heart; but this time, instead of staying sad the notes changed, they morphed from pain and loss into something almost cheerful or happy.

Edward was sitting on the shiny black bench, hunched over as his fingers glided across the ivory keys, stringing together a beautiful melody, soft and sweet, almost like a lullaby. The urge to go to him was almost unbearable, but I didn't dare disturb his song. The notes surrounded me like a warm blanket on a cold winter night

"Why'd you stop?" I asked after the abrupt end to the song; my heart pounding furiously in my chest as I fought to keep my composure. Notes to a song had never had such an affect before, in truth, nothing had ever affected as much as that song right there. The feelings behind it ripped and tore at my heart, breaking it into a thousand pieces as I pushed back the impending tears.

The last thing I needed was for Edward to see me cry, sadness was clearly something he knew all too much about, it had to be in order to play something so deep – so moving. "That's all I have so far… it's not finished."

Shock flowed through my body and I could feel my eyes widen. My mouth opened, and then shut as I tried to form a coherent thought and sentence all the while my mind screaming the same question over and over again. "You wrote that?" my voice shook as the words escaped me and I knew I probably looked like some kind of an idiot.

His eyes darted down to the floor as he rose from his position on the piano bench. "Yeah, it's just something that's been in my head since I came here." He stated, his arms pulling across his torso as he glided across the floor so that he was standing closer to me.

"What about the song you were playing before that?" I asked, the masochist in me needing to know if he could have possibly written something so heart wrenching.

"I wrote it for my mother, it's Elizabeth's song." He said softly, his long fingers moving into his hair, a nervous tick he and I both shared, grabbing at our hair when things got too deep, or uncomfortable. That knowledge of him told me that pushing the envelope any further wouldn't be a good idea at the present time. His eyes locked with mine, silently pleading with me to understand, to not ask what had happened to his mother, at least not now.

Fighting against myself, I forced a smile and tried to take some control of my voice, knowing that it would be shaky at best with I tried to speak. "Do you want some breakfast?"

His eye's flooded with what I could only assume was relief at the subject change and he gave me a smile, though it didn't quite reach his eyes. "Actually I have a better idea," he began, walking from the piano room and to the large window wall at the end of the immaculate hallway. "Perfect." He said as he looked up to the sky, seeing barely any clouds. "Go get dressed, and wear tennis shoes, there's something I want to show you." And with that he darted into his room, I could only assume to dress as well.

It's easy for someone who has never been hurt to let you in, the trust is just automatically there. No need to fear the possibility of it being broken, no need to be scared that one false move and that person will leave you as well. It's a gift that can be given freely, one that comes without earning. But for someone who has so clearly been hurt to willingly to let you in, to show you parts of themselves that they keep hidden from most, is a gift that should be treasured, because that gift proves that you did something right, even if it was as small as being there and listening without speaking or pressing for answers when no one else would.

It was for that reason that I had a smile on my face as I walked down the Cullen's staircase in my favorite black chucks, Eagles T-shirt and stretchy jeans. A cacophony of clanging pots and loud beeping told me that either Edward was in the kitchen, or there was a burglar in the home who didn't know how to cook.

"If you wanted to show me a fire truck you didn't need to try and cook, we could just walk down to the fire station." I teased as I noticed he had water boiling on the stove with a box of Macaroni and cheese sitting open.

His face looked flustered as he turned to me, the harsh beeping of the fire alarm continued. "We'll need food; it takes like an hour to get there and an hour to get back. I figured a picnic would be kind of nice." He explained as his hands made their way to his perfectly tousled for the second time this morning, causing my stomach to twist and turn in the most pleasant of ways.

"Mac and cheese probably isn't the best picnic food," I began as I closed the box back up and stuck it in the cabinet before making it over to the pot of burning and boiling milk, immediately realizing why the fire alarm by the stove was going off. "Edward, you don't boil Mac and cheese in milk you boil it in water and then add milk after." I said, pulling the pot from the stove, trying to hold back the coughing and gagging. "Wave a rag in front of the fire alarm while I get some stuff to make sandwiches with out of the fridge." I instructed as shut the burner, which had been set on high, off.

~*~*~*~*~

The damp ground sloshed under my feet as I followed Edward up the slightly muddy path, over roots and rocks. The heavy leaf coverage from the trees had not allowed any of the sunlight through to dry up the ground. It was mostly flat land, and he held the limbs and damp ferns aside for me, which I was incredibly thankful for. I'd managed to slip once on a moss covered rock, but Edward didn't allow me a chance to hit the ground, as he kept his hand just above my elbow most of the walk, the bag of food in his other hand.

"It's just through those trees," I could see the sun reflecting off of the dewy grass, creating an almost rainbow effect, as he lead me to our destination. His hand dropped away from my forearm and I tried to mask the disappointment with a soft smile. My emotions seemed to be betraying me more and more around Edward, I just hoped he hadn't noticed the quick flash of sadness that I had let cross my face. The copious amount of tree's spread out before us in an almost circle, holding a serene and gorgeous meadow in the middle.

My breath hitched, and my heart sped up as I followed him off the muddy path and into the luscious green grass, my eyes roaming over the small slathering of purple flowers. Awestruck, I walked towards the small blanket Edward was spreading out over the soft ground. The sun was directly overhead by now, wrapping me in warmth as I sat down, tilting my chin to the blue and white sky, soaking in all the warmth the suns rays had to offer.

Edward busied himself by emptying the sandwiches we had prepared onto the blanket that I hoped Esme didn't mind us using. The fabric was old and a bit ratty, Alice and I had used it a few times when we watched movies in the living room and she'd mentioned that it was an old blanket they used to use for picnic's when her and Rose were younger, so I assumed it wouldn't be too big of a deal that Edward and I had taken it. His first idea had been to use the quilt that was on his bed, that I knew Esme wouldn't be too thrilled over.

It took a lot to make her mad, but using one of her nice new quilts outdoors would soon land you in the dog house – literally. I'd experienced it once, when Esme found Carlisle using the spare quilt to let the dog, he was watching for a friend, sleep on. Esme had threatened to let the dog have Carlisle's spot in the bed from now on and offered to even build him his own doghouse for further use if he so much as thought of using one of her nice quilts for something like a dog bed ever again.

Birds chirped in melodious cadence with the flowing water from the nearby stream, creating a natural and beautiful song. "How'd you find this place?" I wondered aloud.

"I needed to get out of the house a couple of weeks ago," he began, his voice a bit courser than its usual velvety tone. "I noticed a little trail out behind the house, so I followed it, if you stay on the right trail there's a small field with a swing set and stuff about five minutes out… I didn't feel like stopping though so I just kept walking and ended up walking right in the middle of the meadow." His eyes turned to face the sandwich he was holding, deliberately directing his gaze from my face. "It reminded me of the meadow my mom used to take me to back in Chicago; it was outside the city, on a small hill overlooking the local park. We always went there for ice cream or to play, on weekends." My heart clenched and I fought against the lump building in the back of my throat, swallowing it down like an unpleasant vitamin.

"Do you come here a lot?" I reveled in the fact that my voice was calm and collected as I asked, my fingers picking nervously at the crust of the bread, absentmindedly peeling it away.

His eyes were darker now, glistening a bit, and I knew he was fighting within himself not to cry. Every time he mentioned his mother, or his childhood he got like this. I both hated it and reveled in it; on one hand, he was opening up to me, letting things out and talking about something that he clearly needed to talk about. On the other though, talking about it brought up memories that clearly made him sad, the fact that he'd never actually dealt with whatever happened to his mother was abundantly clear to me in that moment. "When I need to get away…"

His voice trailed off, and he seemed to be shutting down as he always did. "Edward," I asked, unable to squelch the question that constantly nagged at me, like a child wanting a cookie before dinner. "What happened to your mother?" What appeared to be agitation spread across his face; but only for a moment, because the next emotion I saw was something I recognized all to well, it was despair and I wondered if perhaps I'd overstepped some unseen boundary line with out delicate friendship.

With my voice barely above a whisper I looked and him and said a quick "I'm sorry." Before looking back to the dark greens of the summer grass, running my finger over a blade of it before tearing it out of the ground like a child would a dandelion. Edward was still silent, and made sure to keep my eyes trained to the ground as I twirled the delicate weed in my fingers, it had quickly become the most interesting thing in the area.

"I shouldn't have -- "

"No, its fine," His voice interrupted my backing out of the question. "No one's ever actually asked what happened before; they just dance around the question or expect me to tell them my whole life story when I first meet them." He explained as my eyes left their study of the small blade of green in my hands to look into his exuberant, forest green eyes. It wasn't lost on me that the shade of his eyes was much clearer and prettier than the piece of grass I had just been admiring. My lips remained closed as I waited for him to continue, scared that if I interrupted now he'd retreat back into his shell like a turtle realizing it had been seen.

"It's not nice Bella, the story isn't just sad… it's, it's bad, if you want me to stop at any time just tell me." With those words spoken I was both intrigued and frightened. Lured into the telling of something I was aching to know, yet suddenly wishing I had left well enough alone. "My mom met Demetri after we moved to Seattle," He'd told me a few weeks ago about his mom getting a teaching position at a school in Seattle as a music instructor. "They got married when I was twelve; they met two weeks after we moved here and were married a month later." His voice dripped with irritation and I knew this was uncomfortable for him.

Part of me longed to tell him it was alright, that he didn't need to go on -- the selfish part of me who didn't want to see him in pain. It wasn't what was best for him though, this was something that had so clearly eaten away at him, something he needed to share, and as uncomfortable as it made me, I needed to listen and stop being so selfish.

His deep green eyes stared straight ahead; staring at me, he however wasn't looking at me, if that made any sense at all. His gaze was fixed on my own, but I could tell with one look into those depthless orbs that he was a million miles away. "I didn't like it, I told my mom as much but she insisted I needed a father figure around, she said Demetri was a good man and that he was going to take care of us." It was painfully obvious that his mother had misjudged the man she married by the acidic tone in Edward's voice whenever he spoke his name.

"For a few weeks things were okay, Demetri" his voice once again deepened into acidic anger at the name "and I didn't really get along, but my mom just figured it would take some time. After three months of their marriage I still hated him, I didn't know why, he hadn't done anything, I just had this…" He paused for a moment, appearing to be searching for the right word "This feeling, about him, ya know?" the question was rhetorical. "I knew something wasn't right, but I didn't want to upset my mom anymore than I already had, so I let it go…" His eyes filled with tears and I instinctively reached my hand over to his, wrapping my fingers around his stiff and frigid hand, in a silent form of support.

"I killed my own mother, I'm responsible for it, if I had told her about the weird feeling Demetri gave me things may have turned out differently," Bile rose up in my throat as the realization that the part of the story he'd warned me about was coming up.

Stiffening already rigid shoulders, Edward continued. "I came home late from school, my birthday was next week and Josh wanted me to stay after so we could make plans to go see a movie or something…" his voice trailed off for a moment, as if he were willing himself to continue, just as I was willing myself to not ask him to stop. "Demetri's car was in the driveway, he was never home that early, but still it didn't register that something was the matter, when I got to the door though and found it wide open, I knew something wasn't right." I felt a silent tear make it's why down my cheek, the wind blowing cold on the dampened trail.

"When I walked in there was blood all over the floor, I followed the trail of it upstairs, I could hear my mom crying and begging him to stop before I even reached their bedroom door." His face contorted into what looked like fear and agony, as the tears I'd seen forming in his eyes began to spill over his cheeks. "I got the door open, and he had her on the bed… he… he was raping her, she kept begging him to stop, telling him it hurt, but he wouldn't, her face was bruised and I could see blood spilling out of her side where he'd stabbed her."

In that moment I wanted nothing more than for him to stop talking, to make the horrible images go away, to hug him and whisper that it was all a bad dream and everything was fine. I'd never in my life wanted to make someone else's hurt go away as badly as I did his, if I could I would have gladly taken the pain from him and bore it myself. Anything to make this angle of a boy… a man, not feel sad anymore.

"I was able to make him stop, I yelled and he quit, told me it wasn't what I thought it was…" His words trailed off for a moment as he looked around, his eyes finally leaving mine. "My mom didn't want to leave him, she said he didn't mean it, that it was her fault, he got worse after that though. He made sure not to do anything when I could walk in, but I saw the bruises, I heard her crying at night, but it was too late, she was already too deep into the marriage then and she wouldn't leave." The chirping of a blue bird could be heard from the meadow, it was a perfect melody with Edward's quiet breathing and my pounding heart.

"What… what happened then?" I finally muttered; my voice thick with traitor tears and emotion.

"I came home one night and my mom wasn't in the kitchen like she usually was, I went upstairs to look for her and found her on the bed, she looked like she was sleeping," His voice cracked "so I tried to wake her up… she just laid there…. so I called 9-1-1." Fighting with myself, I managed to fight back a sob that was begging to break free. "The hospital said it was a brain injury, a forceful blow to the head caused swelling and bleeding… they don't think she suffered much." His voice was pure venom and I could tell why, 'they don't think she suffered much.' It was clear Elizabeth Masen had suffered more than anyone knew, anyone besides Edward that was.

It was without hesitation that I flung myself at him, my arms wrapping around the soft plains of his neck, pulling myself closer so that our chests were touching. He didn't speak, and neither did I, in that moment there was nothing that could be said, nothing that would do any good anyways. The words 'I'm sorry' came to mind and I debated on if I should say them or not, before finally giving up and whispering in his ear, "I'm sorry, I wish that could make it all better but it can't, just know that it isn't your fault." A sob finally broke free from Edward at this point so I stopped speaking and pulled him closer still, my left hand making small circles on his back as my right twined itself in the soft curls of bronze at the nape of his neck.

I don't know how long we stayed like that; when he finally went to pull away from me though, I felt an immediate sense of loss that I wasn't expecting. It was as if my body all of the sudden craved the feelings he elicited in me while he was near, some kind of an addiction, and I the desperate addict.

"I'm sorry for unloading all of that on you."

A managed to form a half smile, the tears from earlier having vanished leaving nothing behind but the redness in my eyes and the stains – I was sure they were there – on my cheeks. "Anytime… anything you need, I'm here." I said as reassuringly as possible before grabbing a container of apple slices from the bag of food that had been long since forgotten.

The silence was almost deafening so I decided it was best to try and change the topic, my mind raced for anything and everything that I could bring up before settling on; "I always liked the green apples better than I did the red ones…" was my brilliant thought, it seemed to do the trick though, because I heard a small chuckle erupt from Edward as he pulled one of the slices from the container and looked it over.

"I've always been partial the green ones too," he supplied before crunching the slice between his teeth and chewing it. "I think the red ones are too sweet."

"Sour's always better than sweet," I added, before taking another bite of the apple slice that was in my hand, crunching into it.

We continued like that for a while, just talking about random things. Edward told me that he hated tomatos, but loved ketchup and tomato soup; I had to agree with him on that. Charlie always got irritated that I forgot to buy tomatos at the grocery store so often, since he loved them on his sandwiches. He told me about his one and only girlfriend, her name was Heidi, and they were seven, it lasted from lunch until recess, when he decided that girls had cooties and he didn't like them anymore so he pushed her off of the swing set.

"It was the break up of the year," he said through peels of laughter, the sound a beautiful melody to my ears. "She retaliated the next day by pushing me off of the monkey bars, I ended up breaking my wrist and she had to stand on the wall during recess for the rest of the week." He finished the story, and I couldn't help but laugh right along with him, picturing the scorned seven year old getting even by shoving him off the monkey bars.

"I hope you don't still push girls you like off the swings." I replied, the smile never leaving my face.

"Nope, no more swings for me."

"You haven't shoved any dates off a slide or something, have you?"

"I haven't had any dates, actually." His voice was no longer alight with laughter, instead taking on a more serious tone, yet still with a light hearted air to it. "Have you had many dates push you off of slides?"

The question caused me to blush, as I looked down at my lap, a little embarrassed of my answer. "Uh… no, I've never been on a date…. Well, unless you count that dance at --" as soon as I realized what I was about to say I snapped my mouth shut, and studied the grass a little more closely than before.

"I didn't know that you thought it was…" my stomach dropped even more as he spoke those words.

"I didn't, I was just saying it was… like a date," I interjected "It's not a big deal."

"It was like a date," he added stoically. "If I'd known you considered it a date though, I would have paid for your ticket in, and bought your dinner that night." My brows furrowed, as I risked looking at his face.

"What?" It was the only thing I could think of to ask him; I thought he was going to tell me that he didn't see me like that, tell me he'd figured out that I got butterflies in my stomach whenever he spoke, and smiled more just because he was around… instead he told me he would have paid for my food beforehand if he had thought it was a date back then.

"I didn't think," he said, his eyes coming back to look at me once more. "I just thought it was a friend's thing, but you're right, it was like a date and I should have thought to get your dinner for you." He sounded almost agitated, and I wondered if that was directed at me or himself. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what?" By this point I was genuinely confused, and I could feel my brows furrowing together.

"For not being a better first date,"

"I… am… confused." I said each word slowly and drawn out, to accentuate just how confused I was at this point. The whole conversation had just gone off into left field, and it was all because of my stupid slip of the tongue, I shouldn't have even brought up the dance, he was right in his assumption, it wasn't a date, it was a friend's thing. I had just been trying to make my point that it could have been considered a date, that it was 'like a date', not an actual date.

"I didn't know you thought of it as a date, I didn't even realize it was like a date, until you pointed it out." He began, his eyes showing a hint of annoyance, and I hoped it wasn't directed at me. "It was like a date, it was like your first date and I didn't even pay for your dinner."

"You didn't know what I was thinking though," I began, my hands coming up to grip my mahogany locks before dropping them back down on my lap, silently hating my big mouth. "You were right the first time though, it was a friends thing, we went with Alice and Jasper, it can't be considered a date if other people are on it with you."

"Double dates…"

"Okay, but they weren't technically on a date, their just friends so it was just a group outing."

Edward laughed at this, and rolled his eyes. "Alice and Jasper are far from 'just friends'" he said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. And it was, but I didn't think he had noticed it, heck, Alice hadn't even told me if anything was going on between the two of them or not, which most likely meant nothing was, since Alice told me everything these days.

"No, they aren't just friends, but neither of them realize it yet… at least I don't think they have." I said, before something hit me; how would Edward know they were far from just friends? Had Alice told him something she hadn't told me? "Wait, why did you say they were, far from just friends?" I brought my fingers up into air quotations as I said 'far from just friends'. "Did Alice say something to you?" I questioned, hurt fairly evident in my voice.

Edward shook his head no, and smiled. "She hasn't said anything to me, I just thought they were dating, their always together." I was about to add in the fact that, we were always together as well, but thought better of it. That was one can of worms I did not want to open now, the afternoon hadn't emotionally relaxing, or pleasant at some parts, but it had still been an amazing afternoon, and the last thing I wanted to do was complicate it any more by putting the thought in his head that.

"Oh…" was my brilliant response.

"First kiss?"

"What?"

Edward laughed a loud belly laugh, his eyes crinkling with the laugh and smile that was spread across his gorgeous face. "We already covered first dates," he began, before stopping for a moment. "Or, lack there of, I should say, so what about first kiss?" I moved my head to the side as I looked at him in confusion. If my only, sort-of-could-be-like-a-date date was with him, then shouldn't he know that I had never been kissed before? It was something that seemed incredibly obvious to me, actually. If I had never been on a date, then how could I have been kissed? Traditionally speaking, didn't the date come before the kiss?

"I told you, I've never been on a date before…."

"You don't have to go on a date to have a first kiss." He countered; I sighed in frustration, my hands crossing a bit nervously in my lap so that they wouldn't be free to grab my hair and stay there when I explained, in utter mortification, that I had no experience with boys whatsoever, not only had I never been on a real date or kissed someone, I had never even held hands, romantically, with someone before.

"When I was six, I kissed Tommy Matthews on the cheek," I could feel the blush growing on my cheeks, from the way my face burned I knew it wasn't just its regular light pink tinge, instead a deep scarlet or maybe already a purple color. "Other than that, no actual first kiss, no nothing," I could feel the chaotic beating of my heart as I risked a glance at his face. The fact that I was fifteen and had yet to kiss someone was an oddity these days; that fact was not lost on me.

His eyes showed a quiet intensity as he searched my face, and I couldn't help but wish that I was able to read his mind. "Bella," The elegant sound of his voice pulling a small fraction of my attention towards him, the rest of it still lost on the way his eyes seemed to change colors just the slightest bit whenever he was thinking about something. "Can I kiss you?" The words didn't register in my mind for a good thirty seconds, and by that time I could see that he appeared to be at least a small bit, apprehensive.

Was he serious; I wondered, my eyes widening, as they drifted from the slight pink tinge of his full lips and back to his eyes. I would be lying if I said I hadn't dreamt of him asking me something like that, in fact I recalled a dream very similar to this situation about a week back. "Yes," I whispered without hesitation, afraid to move my eyes from his for fear that the spell we seemed to be under all of the sudden would be broken.

As his face began to move closer to mine I found myself wondering if my breath smelled alright; had I brushed my teeth good this morning? Should I move my nose to the side? Would he use tongue; a lot of the girls at school talked about kissing with tongue, and while it sounded a bit gross to me, the thought of Edward using his to—my mind stopped mid thought as I felt the slight ghosting of his lips against my own, and I couldn't help but smile as I pressed my own against his, my eyes drifting shut as I sampled the flavor his mouth had to offer. His lips were soft and slow, letting me lead the way; and lead the way I did. Later I would probably be embarrassed to admit that I lost almost all control.

One minute I was putting gentle pressure against his lips, much the same as he was doing with mine, nothing more than testing boundaries, and the next my mouth was moving at an almost frenzied pace, opening the slightest bit as he moved in tandem with me. Noses collided, and I felt him gently bite down on my bottom lip, but it just seemed to egg me on. When he nipped, I nipped; his tongue moving out of his mouth every so often to run over the swell of where he'd bitten before pressing back against my own. Each time he seemed to press firmer than before; and if it wasn't for our need for oxygen, I swear I could have continued to kiss him for the rest of the night.

He was the first to move back, his forehead coming to rest against my own as our labored breathing slowed to a slightly more normal rate.

"We should get back, Alice and Esme will be home with Rose soon," The smooth perfection of his voice pulled me from my haze as I watched him jump up and begin packing the food from earlier away. Furrowing my brows, I too stood picking the blanket up with me and folding it. What had gotten into him; I wondered?

"Are you… are you alright?"

"Yeah, we should, we should," His voice was thicker than usual, and I could tell he was purposefully avoiding my gaze. Had I been that bad of a kisser? It was only my first time, and he had seemed to be enjoying himself earlier… My stomach clenched in uncomfortable knots as I watched him grab the last remaining items before walking ahead of me to the path. I wanted to ask him what was wrong, because it was clear there was something the matter, but my voice seemed to be caught in my throat as I forced the tears to stay away.

We walked back to the house in uncomfortable silence.


	10. Confusion

**A/N: Sorry it took me so long to get the update out, but, as I said before. I had a final last week to attend to as well as a family tragedy. I hope to have the next chapter up by next weekend, but I am not sure as I'm doing different things with different people on different days for my birthday. Wow, that was a mouthful. Anyways, on with the chapter, I hope you enjoy it :-)**

**Disclaimer: Nope, still not mine, and, as sad as it sounds, I'm not making a penny off of them. Sad but true, Stephenie Meyer owns them and makes the money. **

* * *

The blankets bunched beneath me in an annoying fashion. I had been sitting in Alice's room for the past ten minutes, door locked and closed as I allowed the tears to flow openly, leaving a cool trail as they made their descent down my cheeks. How could I have been so stupid; I'd let Edward kiss me, hell, I had practically attacked him when he did it, forcing myself on him as my hungry mouth devoured his own. The images played out against my eyelids like a movie, all the mistakes I had made today, leading to Edward's infuriated silence.

Moving my knees so that I was hugging them to my chest, I allowed the self pity seep in as the dim light of the room mixed with the small rays of sunshine coming through the blinds created a shadow pattern on the pink quilt. It looked almost like a trains track or something as it splayed across the bed, over my arms and up to the wall. My weary eyes studied it for a few moments, the patterns the sun was creating doing little to make me feel anything less than utterly miserable, but at least it gave my mind something to focus on for a few moments other than Edward's actions after our kiss.

We'd gotten back to the house after a very uncomfortable and uneventful walk along the trail, the entire time he acted as if he couldn't wait to be away from my company. My suspicions of this had been proven when we entered the house and he high tailed it up the stairs two by two, not bothering to say anything else to me, or even look me in the eyes. Alice wasn't home yet it seemed, which meant I was stuck here unless I intended to walk home, with the way the sky had been slightly clouding up, I knew that wasn't an option, trudging my way home more than five miles in mud and rain would surely send up a red flag to Charlie, leading to a discussion that I was not ready to have. So instead I made my way up the staircase, just as Edward had moments before. Usually I would have turned right, and walked into his room and flop down on his bed, before we got sucked into one of our pointless conversations over the singer of whatever CD he decided to play at the time. That hadn't been an option today though.

My eyes stung from the tears as I forced the thoughts away, I was in Alice's room for a reason. Why, I wasn't sure. Either I was a terrible kisser and Edward simply did not want anything more to do with me because of that flaw, or I had pushed some unknown button, walked past an unknown line that he had and forced him back into the shell of a person he had been just a couple of months ago. The thought of setting Edward back by some unknown action brought on a whole new set of tears and sobs, this time stronger than before. My vision clouded as my eyes traced over the shadowed train track like pattern that I had been studying so intently before, there was no use in attempting to follow the intricate design it formed, my mind was stuck on Edward, on what could possibly have caused him to pull away from me so quickly, what had brought on his sudden – my mind searched for a word to describe his actions – disinterest.

The sounds of thunder crackling in the distance confirmed my earlier suspicions that it was going to rain or storm from the look of the clouds that had begun to cover the deep blue sky as Edward and I had made our way out of the woods this afternoon. Another clap soon followed, and before long I could hear the sound of tree branches scratching against Alice's window pain as fat droplets of rain began to pound against the ceiling, the sudden storm lulling me into a fitful slumber, as the sobs began to slow, and the tears dried.

Time heals all wounds; the pain and heartache that is felt will end with time, tuning from Piercing pain to a dulling ache that bleeds into nothing at all. Apparently my nap wasn't enough time to heal my wounds, if embarrassment and self loathing for pushing too far past ones limits could be considered wounds. Whatever the pain was though, it was still there just as strong when I awoke sometime later with a start to the sound of unremitting pounding. It took me a few moments to take in my surroundings as I sat up in the bed looking around, my heart thudding loudly in my chest like a drum solo. My eyelids felt sticky and heavy as I forced them all the way open, wincing at the stinging sensation that encompassed my eyeballs. iThat's what you get for crying,/i I scolded myself as the pounding of the door became more and more insistent.

"Bella!" Alice's voice shouted from behind the door, as I heard the sound of the handle jiggling a bit before her fists were moving against the wood once more. "Bella! Are you in there?!" There was a hint of distress to her tone, the cadence of knocking continuing as she once more called my time.

"Just a minute," I finally mustered my voice scratchy and rough as I spoke. My eyes closed for a moment as I tried to swallow over the soreness of my throat, hoping the liquid saliva would help relieve the dryness and pain.

Unsurprisingly the knocking continued, up until the moment I allowed the insatiable little pixie into her room. The floorboard squeaked beneath my feet as I followed her to the bed, I stopped dead in my tracks as I took in her expression, the squeaking ending with my steps. Her eyes were wide; a disapproving scowl crossed her lips as she shook her head in what seemed to be confusion. Did I look that bad; I wondered as I moved my hands up to try and smooth out what was sure to be a head full of messy hair. Her face glare remained focused on me, signaling that perhaps it wasn't my hair she was worried about. For whatever reason she looked speechless, so I turned to the mirror to see what had her speechless and staring.

My face was blotchy with red streaks and tinged with light pinks from my now dried tears, my eyes were puffy, and completely bloodshot. The fact that I had been crying definitely not something I was going to be able to keep from her.

"What happened?" My friend demanded, the sharpness of her voice causing me to flinch. I guess she saw the reaction her tone had caused, because the next words that left her mouth were much more subdued, but still with an edge of demand. "Why were you crying, why was the door locked, and why is Edward refusing to come down for dinner?" Normally I would smile at all the questions she managed to ask in one breath, but instead I winced at the mention of Edward's name, the confusion I could see on her face melting away into understanding as she worried her bottom lip, a habit I noticed she had picked up from me in the past few weeks.

"Did you and Edward have a fight?" This time it was me who worried their bottom lip, my eyes dropping from hers, the different colored pinks that made of her comforter suddenly the most entertaining thing in the world. "Bella," she said again, her voice a sharper pitch this time. "Did you and Edward have a fight?"

_No Alice, I kissed him and apparently I suck at it,_ I wanted to say, or perhaps tell her that I was a rotten person who had pushed him so far past the limits he was comfortable with that he now hated me. Confess to my sins like a woman confessing her transgressions to a priest. Briefly, I wondered if confession did any good if one was not catholic, as I searched my fuzzy mind for some form of an answer that would both satiate her and not lead to anymore questions. "I don't know," I thought and said at the same time, my eyes never leaving the floral design of the bedspread.

"How can you not know?" At least her voice was softer this time, I noted as I took in a calming breath. "Bella, he's refusing to even open the door," She continued. "If he hadn't turned the music up to full blast when Esme knocked we wouldn't have even known he was in there." I immediately felt responsible for his actions, clearly I had pushed him into telling me something he wasn't ready to tell, or perhaps the physical boundaries he had so carefully set up with everyone else had been pushed by my kissing him.

iHe asked you if he could kiss you, it was his idea,/i the rational side of my brain argued as I pushed the thought away. Even if he had asked me if he could kiss me, I had taken things too far by practically throwing myself at him and now he was upset with me. I should have known better, the guy had seen his mother raped just a few years ago, of course he would be uneasy with physical contact, I told myself, the traitor tears making their way back to my eyes as I fought in vain to keep them at bay.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, the tears overflowing my eyes as the lump in my throat grew. "I didn't mean to upset him."

Without my realizing it Alice had moved from her place on the bed and was pulling me into an embrace. "Clearly he upset you as well," she said, as her hands moved in soothing circles over my lower back. "What happened, sweetie?" She cooed the question in my ear, her words no longer sharp and demanding, as I fought to keep in the sob that was threatening to escape.

"I honestly don't know." Was the brilliant lie I came up with, and judging from the sarcastic 'uh-huh' Alice released; I knew she didn't believe a word of it. It wasn't that I didn't want to tell her, because honestly I did, more than anything I wanted to confide in her, tell someone everything that had happened. Tell someone everything that was transpiring between me and Edward, about how I was the only person he talked to about things, and how when he touched me I felt tingles that began in the pit of my stomach and then enveloped me.

But if I told her, then would I be betraying Edward? Of course there were ways of telling her what had happened recently, about the kiss and nothing else to at least gain some insight from her as to why he had run. But what if he hadn't been disappointed in my kissing abilities; it was possibly something else, such as me pushing him too far, pushing him into telling me about his mother. And that was something that I couldn't reveal. No matter what happened between Edward and I; the things he had told me in confidence were things that I would never share with another living soul, unless he specifically asked me to.

Sighing, I pulled myself away from Alice and brought my sleeve up to wipe at my teary and puffy eyes. "I can't tell you everything," I began, my voice sounding almost defeated. Alice agreed by shaking her head, and putting her arm around my shoulder in a comforting manner before leading me to the plush bed so that we could sit. "Some of the things," no, that wasn't the right way to say it, "Some stuff isn't mine to tell." There, that sounded more reasonable. I looked up at her from hooded eyes to see that she was shaking her head yes, signaling that I hadn't sounded too vague, or stupid, or just plain confusing.

Footsteps could be heard coming up the hall and I held my breath, afraid that it was Dr or Mrs. Cullen coming to yell at me for whatever I had done to Edward. The scuffling of feet stopped for a moment, and I held my breath, before allowing it to release in a relieved _whoosh_ when the footsteps went the other direction. I heard a door opening and closing, it was probably Rose, I told myself before looking back at Alice once more, noting the look of 'out with it already, Bella' that was plastered across her face. Obviously I was taking too long, but I wasn't really sure how to begin. 'So, I kissed your foster brother and now I think he hates me' just didn't seem like that great of a conversation starter, especially one where I was going to have to be careful to not reveal the plethora of secrets Edward had entrusted me with.

"Bella." Alice's concerned voice pulled me back to reality as I took in one more breath, preparing myself for the conversation we were about to have.

"Edward and I went for a walk," Technically that wasn't divulging any information the meadow, I wasn't sure if it was something that he wanted kept to secret, but I knew it was something I wanted to keep private. It felt like it was special to him and I, even if he was mad now, even if he was never going to talk to me again for whatever reason, that meadow was where he had opened up to me completely. And even though the day was ending on a sour note, the meadow was where I experienced the most amazing event of my life up until this point. "and we talked about…" my voice trailed off for a moment as I searched for something to say, "stuff." Not too brilliant, but it would do.

I looked up from where my eyes were trained on the bedspread, to make sure Alice was following. She smiled and nodded for me to continue. "Anyways, after a while we started talking about dating and I told him I'd never kissed anyone before so he asked if he could kiss me."

At this revelation, Alice gasped, her eyes going wide as she stared at me. "You guys kissed?" she asked, her voice filled with shock and a slight confusion that I chalked up to her being so surprised by the whole thing.

"Yeah," It was all I could manage. I felt a small blush tingeing my cheeks so I averted my gaze from her, now finding the wall to be of great importance.

"I didn't see that," she whispered. I smiled and nodded in agreement, I hadn't seen it coming either, the whole afternoon had been completely shocking to me. A mixture of bad and good, creating the most baffling day I had ever encountered. "If you guys kissed, why all the tears?" She began, the toe of her voice commanding my gaze back to her as I watched a million different scenarios of what would happen when I told her of Edward's behavior afterwards play out in my mind like a movie. "Why is he so upset? What happened after that?" I worried my bottom lip, an internal battle warring within me; did I tell her how he reacted? Or was that something that needed to be kept quiet, it was possible his actions were not directly related to the kiss.

_It's also possible they were_, the annoying devil to my right piped up, demanding I slam Edward for causing me such confusion and pain_. It's petty, Bella, he may be upset that you pushed him into something he wasn't ready to share,_ the angel on my left chirped, garnering most of my attention. She was right, there was a whole array of possibilities for Edward's actions and if I told Alice that he kissed me and then shut down like he had, she would want to know more, either that or she would barge into his room and demand an explanation.

To be honest, I would like to do that myself; barge in and ask what his problem was, why he didn't like the kiss. But I knew with the mood Alice had described he probably needed to be alone. After everything he had rehashed to me this afternoon, the least I could do was let him be alone when he wanted and needed it. In the back of my mind the question of weather or not he would need someone, of weather he would need me to go in and talk to him made itself known, puzzling me even more as to what I should do. The only clear answer was the one that told me not to tell Alice anymore than what I just had.

"Nothing else happened after the kiss," I lied, and even though she didn't say anything, I knew she didn't buy it for a second.

"Fine, don't tell me." She said in her typical Alice fashion, before pulling me to her in a quick and comforting embrace, silently letting me know that she was there if I ever needed to talk. Something I already knew, but a comfort none the less. "Rose's doctor recommended some great adoption agencies…"

With a baited breath, I smiled at the welcomed change of subject. And though I knew it was just a small smile, the only kind I could manage, I also knew Alice wasn't going to press me any further. At least not right now, and for that, I would be eternally grateful for her, my best friend. "Is she going to give it up?" I wondered aloud.

A look I couldn't quite place crossed Alice's face for a moment before I heard her take in a deep breath. "I don't know if she's going to or not," Her words were soft, and the confusion over the entire situation was evident in her voice. "She keeps going back and forth on what she wants to do, mom told her that she should consider an open adoption and they ended up fighting the whole way home." The position that Rosalie was in, and Esme and Alice, dealing with a pregnancy at such an early age was unimaginable to me. The difficulties that Rosalie must be facing alone, knowing that in a few more months she was going to be having a baby and not having any idea of what she was going to do about that. My heart broke for her, and Alice who was so obviously suffering right alongside her sister with the decision she had to wrestle with.

Even though they didn't get along most of the time, Rose was still Alice's sister, adopted or not, they were siblings and family and as much as I knew that Alice didn't want to show that she was scared. It was obvious in the small looks that flashed across her face whenever she thought that I wasn't looking, that she was terrified for her sister. The wind whistled outside of the house eerily as I allowed myself to process what Alice was telling me in hopes of finding some way of comforting her, some way of making everything better. My mind raced over possible words of comfort I'd head in the past, but none of them seemed to be what Alice needed to hear in that very moment, so instead of trying to comfort her, I decided to try something different.

"What do you think she should do?" I asked, deciding that listening to Alice talk about her ideas may help her to feel better. As much as I was hurting from Edward's aloof behavior after our kiss, I knew that I needed to try and be there for her. Part of me longed to comfort Rosalie and Esme as well, but there was no way for me to do that, besides, I was pretty sure Rose still wasn't very fond of me.

"Honestly?" She asked. I smiled and nodded my head 'yes'.

"I know this is going to sound completely horrible of me," She began, bringing her finer to her mouth and gently biting down on a piece of her nail, successfully cracking the red polish that coated her French tips. "I think she should give him up." The words were spoken so quietly that had I not been listening intently I knew I would have missed them.

"I don't think you sound horrible,"

"Thanks," I smiled and rested my head on her shoulder, listening to the steady rise and fall of her breathing, allowing it to lull me into a sense of security.

"I know it's not play place," I started, my eyes falling shut for a moment as I gathered my thoughts. "But maybe keeping the baby would be a good thing too." I braced myself for a fire storm of anger at sticking my nose where it didn't belong, only to feel Alice's head shaking in agreement with me.

"I guess it would be kind of fun to have a little baby around the house, and I am sure Rose would be a great mom," She said, her head falling back against the headboard as I moved myself up so that I too was sitting against the headboard with her, my knees crossing in an Indian style position.

"But," I pressed.

With a slight chuckle, Alice continued. "But, I think it would be smarter if she gave it up for adoption, she'll be a senior next year, and then off to college." Her words made sense, it would be difficult for her to go to school and be a mom at the same time, something a lot of women had found to be an impossible task to handle.

"Mom agrees with me, Rose has such a bright future, if she keeps the baby she's going to be limiting herself so much. It's weird, because, on one hand, I do want her to keep the baby; I want nothing more than to be an aunt, to watch my nephew grow up." It didn't escape my attention that she'd referred to the baby as a boy twice, but with Rose only being three months along, I knew it wasn't possible for her to know without a doubt the sex of the baby. There was always guessing from cravings or the ever classic, carrying low it's a boy, carrying high it's a girl. Alice was calling it a boy though, so I assumed that was her guess. If there was one thing Alice loved it was always being right, so there was no way she would leave room for the option of the child being anything other than what she thought it was. At least not unless it was born a girl, and then she would be forced to admit her mistaken assumption; then again, this was Alice… she probably wouldn't admit anything, and that was just another thing I loved about her. "But if she keeps it, what kind of a life would she have?" She asked.

"What kind of a life will he have?" I wondered out loud, causing Alice to suck in a deep breath.

"God I don't envy her at all." She said, and I couldn't help but agree with the statement. I wondered what Rose must be going through if Alice and I's hypothetical talk was so difficult. To actually have to face such a choice must be agonizing.

Someone knocked on the door, causing Alice and I to jump a little, startled. "Alice?" We heard Esme ask, before the doorknob rattled and the door was pushed open. "Hey girls, aren't you all going to come down for dinner?" I didn't feel much like eating, but there was no way I could turn Esme down so I just smiled and shook my head yes. Alice seemed to agree with me since we both got up at the same time, silently following Esme out the door.

~*~*~*~

"Pizza and Beer?" I asked my father as I walked into the living room. I had asked Dr. Cullen to drive me home after we'd finished dinner, Edward was still refusing to come out of his room or talk to anyone which just made it that much harder to keep my fake pleasant mood up. They needed to be alone anyways, Rose needed the support of her family, and that did not include me. Esme had of course asked me if I would like to say but I'd politely declined, faking a migraine, which Alice quickly told her I'd been complaining of since yesterday, so there were no further questions. For that I was eternally grateful.

Charlie swallowed the piece of pizza he had been eating when I came in and chased it down with a swig of beer before giving me a questioning look. "I thought you weren't supposed to be home until tomorrow." He said, half accusing, half questioning and half guilty as he brought the can of vitamin R to his mustache covered mouth again and took another swig, his eyes staying trained on me.

"I didn't feel well, and besides I think they needed to talk to Rosalie about some stuff," I began, sounding as nonchalant as possible as to not draw any attention to the fact that I was upset over something. A conversation with Charlie about kissing Edward was not the way I wanted to end my night. "So, why are you eating Pizza?" I asked; hands on my hips as my eyes scanned over the cherry brown coffee table to another box that was slightly covered by the open lid from the Pizza box. "And hot wings? There's leftover casserole in the refrigerator." I huffed before making my way over to the couch and sitting down beside of him.

"Their not hot wings, they're Buffalo wings… there's a difference." Charlie defended as he dipped on in the creamy white dressing and popped it in his mouth, sucking the meat off the bone. I couldn't help but chuckle at the red sauce that got caught in his mustache when he was finished with the wing.

"Fine, then, Why are you eating Buffalo" I placed emphasis on the word 'Buffalo' "wings and eating Pizza when theirs a broccoli casserole in the refrigerator?" My tone was condescending, and I knew it, but Charlie didn't seem to mind. I mentally scolded myself for sounding so patronizing to my father.

With an eye roll Charlie grabbed another piece of pizza out of the box, a piece of olive falling off and landing in the box as he placed it in a plate and set it on my lap. "Take a bite of that, and tell me you would choose re-heated broccoli casserole." He said with a deep belly laugh. I _hrmphed_ and brought the cheesy deliciousness to my mouth.

He was right, I would much rather have this than re-heated casserole made with almost all fat free and low in fat ingredients. "It's good," I conceded, before taking another bite, the sweetness of the pineapple and the saltiness from the ham and black olive's creating the most amazing flavor. "And yes, I would rather have it than re-heated casserole."

"But," he said, with another chuckle. Even though I had only been here for a few short months, he knew me pretty well already.

"But, you still shouldn't be eating this." He, Billy and the other people on the reservation always had very unhealthy lunches during their fishing excursions. "What did you have for lunch; burgers and beer?" I asked, my brow raised as Charlie looked away guiltily.

"That's a heart attack waiting to happen dad; you should limit it to one unhealthy meal a day."

He sighed. "I can take care of myself Bells, been doing it for fourteen years."

"But you don't have to take care of yourself anymore," I argued, sitting the Pizza back in it's place on the paper plate. "I'm here now."

"You're here for me to take care of you," Charlie pointed out. "I'm your father."

"And I'd like to have my father around for a long time." I added, my temper beginning to flare up. After everything that had gone on today, the last thing I needed was an argument with Charlie, hopefully he wouldn't want to push me, but if he did, I was prepared for it.

"Touché," I heard him whisper, an almost smile formed on my lips as I looked up at him to make sure I had heard him correctly. "I know your right, and I will try and eat less junk, but I'm as healthy as a horse right now, so you really don't need to worry about me." That was true, I still couldn't help it; I needed someone to take care of.

Back home in Phoenix, I always had to take care of Renée, from making sure bills were in on time to re-scheduling doctor's appointments when she forgot. It was kind of hard giving up being the adult, but I had to admit, my dad was pretty capable of caring for himself. Just not when it came to cooking and cleaning, that was a disaster.

Last month he had attempted to wash one of my sweaters for me while I was down with the stomach flu for a few days. My blue sweater now had large white stains on it, because he didn't know that bleach and colors did not mix. No wonder most of his undershirts were pink. I'd be willing to wager that they had been white when he'd bought them, but he was also unaware that red and white shirts didn't go into the same load.

"Even though I know you can take care of yourself," I began. "I'm still in charge of the cooking and the laundry, because I know you can't take care of those two things." He was the eternal bachelor, and as much as he enjoyed Pizza and top Ramen, that wasn't going to be his meals every night of the week.

Charlie laughed, and as much as I wanted to smile and laugh right along with him, I couldn't seem to make myself. My mind was still too focused on Edward and if he was alright, for me to just let loose. "Speaking of laundry" he whispered as I raised the slice of pizza to my mouth. "I uh… tried to do some yesterday." He said and I almost choked on the bite of food that was in my mouth.

"How did that go?" The question was carefully asked, as I placed the pizza back on its plate, my eyes never leaving his guilty face.

"I didn't turn anything pink or bleach your clothes this time," my eyes narrowed. "But I did try and wash too many things at once, so the washer's kind of on the fritz." He took a swig of beer before continuing. "Don't worry, Billy's son's going to come out and help me fix the thing tomorrow."

I furrowed my brow in confusion. "I thought Billy only had the two daughters that helped him with the wolf reserve?" It was a question and not a statement. I'd only ever heard of his two daughters, and the domesticated wolf that lived with them, Jake.

"Jake's about thirteen, but he's really –"

"Jake the wolf?" I cut him off, confusion evident on my face.

"Jake his son, Bells, the wolf's name is Jack." Charlie corrected me before breaking out into a fit of laughter. "You need to pay more attention to things, Bells." I couldn't deny that. In that past months that Edward had been with the Cullen's it seemed that all of my attention had been focused on getting to know what made him tick, uncovering whatever it was that made him seem so scared. I'd been obsessed with helping him, as well as preoccupied with my friendship with Alice. So preoccupied that it seemed I'd missed the minor detail that my dad's best friend not only had twin daughters, but a son.

I was going to make it a point to pay closer attention when my dad spoke, and maybe be home more on the weekends. Instead of staying over Friday's and Saturday's I would sometimes come home on Saturday evenings, I decided as I finished my slice of pizza. As sick as I was feeling over the whole Edward mess, I had to admit that I was having a pretty good time with my dad. Usually our dinners were quiet affairs, a few 'How was school; that's good, how was work's being exchanged. As crazy as it sounded, my dad and I seemed to be getting to know each other.

And for the first time all evening, a genuine smile spread across my face at the prospect. I was no longer just his kid from a marriage that didn't work out; I was actually his daughter. I wasn't telling my dad over the phone what my mom and I had done for Thanksgiving; I was living with my dad, sitting beside him on the couch with sports playing across the television having a conversation. I'd even gotten lectured about him being in charge, as much as I missed Renée, I had to admit, I was really enjoying this new development in my life. I had a dad… not one that called every so often and sent child support checks every month, but a dad that I came home to.

Later that night I lay in bed, consumed with thoughts of Edward and what had transpired between us earlier in the day. He seemed okay when he'd finished the story about his mother, as okay as anyone could be after telling such a horrific tale, but still, he hadn't seemed angry. At least not at me, the venom that was in his voice whenever he said his step fathers name was evident.

I tossed and turned in the bed trying to find a more comfortable spot, the blankets bunching around my legs in an annoying fashion as I did so. Edward had to have been upset about the kiss; I thought as I kicked the sheets and purple mass that was my comforter from the bottom of my feet so that it was no longer bunched around them. We had gone on to play twenty questions after Edward told me of his mother's horrific death….

The abhorrent things Edward's stepfather had done were like nothing else, so unimaginable, disgusting and terrifying. I wanted to believe that everyone had good in them, but after hearing of the things Demetri had done, I wasn't so sure that was something I could cling to anymore, like a child being told Santa wasn't real; I wanted to cling to the hope that there was something redeemable about everyone, but this man was making that incredibly difficult to do. Keeping my opinions to myself at the time had been like driving past a wreck and not looking. The man deserved prison time, but for whatever reason, he was still free to make Edward's life miserable.

The day Rosalie announced her pregnancy to all of us; Edward and I had been hid out in his room, avoiding the fire storm that was brewing downstairs with the Blonds bombshell announcement. He'd mentioned then that Demetri somehow always managed to get custody of him back, so it was obvious he wasn't spending the life in prison that he deserved. My mind reeled with questions as I drifted into a fitful sleep, amazingly enough, not one of those questions was about why he didn't like kissing me. Instead I focused more on what his stepfather could have possibly said to get out of trouble for murder or if he had ever done anything to Edward.

Saturday turned to Sunday and Sunday faded into Monday. Alice had called me once, yesterday to confirm that we were still on for going to the beach in La Push like we had been planning for the last week. I told her we were, but didn't ask if Edward was still planning on coming or not, she had mentioned that he seemed okay, but I didn't push her for details on the subject.

When Alice came to my door at exactly eleven am, I half expected Edward to be with her. But as I pulled the deep mahogany wood back, I saw only Alice and Esme. As inconspicuously as I could possibly manage I looked over their shoulders to the car, hoping that Edward had just decided to stay in instead of getting out. Unfortunately the seats were all empty, so unless he was riding in the trunk, he had pulled out of our beach trip; the Beach trip that had been planned by all three of us just last week.

"Edward's not coming…" Alice whispered as I pulled the door closed behind me, the butterscotch colored rays of sunshine doing nothing to cheer my mood as we walked through the oddly dried ground.

"I figured." It was whispered low, but I was sure Alice had heard me since she nodded and hopped in the front seat without saying anything else on the subject. The silence remained for the fifteen minute ride out to the beach. Esme, seeming to not know what was going on, nor what to say to either of us, had opted to play the radio to fill some of the silent tension.

"Why didn't he come?" I asked Alice as soon as we were out of the car and a safe distance away from Esme's hearing range.

Alice sighed, pulling her large pink wrap around her bikini clad body as a gust chilly wind blew through the thick vegetation and trees near the cliffs of the beach. "He said that he didn't feel well," It was a lie. I could tell by her tone that she herself knew that he was lying as well. "He said that he would try and make it tomorrow for the movie though."

He never did. On Tuesday, he was still feeling under the weather, so Alice and I attended the movies alone. On Wednesday Edward had a full fledged stomach virus, minus the throwing up, according to Alice. Thursday it was book that he needed to finish reading so he could get it back to the person who'd leant it to in a 'respectable amount of time', Alice told me, using air quotes as she said the words that we both knew were once again, an excuse. As the week slipped into the weekend the excuses continued, and by Sunday afternoon, I was sick of them. Edward's skipping out on the cookout to avoid me by claiming he had a migraine and staying in his room made everything completely obvious to me; I was who he was avoiding. I'd thought it rather self righteous of me to consider his behavior directly related to me at first, but this week it had become clear that I was the one he was avoiding, meaning I had been the cause of his actions.

I was sitting on the bench the burger on my plate completely untouched as everyone chatted around me, my mind was wondering over what had transpired in the meadow for the fifty billionth time. Talking about his mom had been difficult, but, as crazy as it was; I had dissected the events and categorized them into 'Everything was okay' time and 'Things aren't going so well' time. If a shrink ever got into the inner workings of my mind they would have me committed for being so consumed with one person, but I couldn't seem to help it.

I knew the precise moment things had gone off track. Whenever I mentioned us going to the dance being like a date he had began acting weird, and then again when we were talking about my past – or lack there of – relationships. As conceited as it sounded, him telling me his story wasn't what caused this odd turn in his behavior. I was the reason for it; it was me and my kissing him, and talking about relationships. For whatever reason, and I wasn't so sure that it was just about him not being able to stomach the idea of me as anything more than a friend, he had freaked out and was now avoiding me. It sounded like a totally ridiculous thing for me to even think, but it was the only thing that added up with his behavior, and as soon as I could sneak off without Charlie or Dr and Mrs. Cullen wanting to ask me how I was enjoying my summer so far, I was going to confront him.

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